KUALA LUMPUR (Nov 18): Meta, the company formerly known as Facebook, is diving straight into virtual reality (VR) with a preview of its latest research and development on haptic gloves which give sensory feedback while in digital realms.

At a simplified level, Meta’s haptics prototype is a glove lined with around 15 ridged and inflatable plastic pads known as actuators.

The pads are arranged to fit along the wearer’s palm, the underside of their fingers, and their fingertips. The glove also acts as a VR controller.

Facebook rebranded to Meta in late October to shift its focus from social media to metaverse and VR tech development.

Citing a blog post from Meta, cryptocurrency news portal Cointelegraph on Thursday (Nov 18) said Meta shared the latest breakthroughs in haptic glove research from its VR tech firm Reality Labs, noting that the product has been seven years in the making.

Cointelegraph quoted Meta as saying the gloves rely on haptic rendering to send “precise instructions to the actuators on the hand” that correspond with tracking technology that pinpoints the hand’s location and the properties of virtual objects in the metaverse.

It said in their current state of development, the palms appear to be lined with small soft robotic motors that move in unison to deliver a corresponding sensation to the user’s hand movements in the metaverse.

Meta noted, however, that haptic gloves won’t be hitting the market anytime soon.