There are quite a few fancy terms in the world of virtual reality. That is only to be expected from a technologically complex subject. Haptic retargeting is a term coined by Microsoft, even though a lot of VR users will experience it over time. The goal of this technology is to enhance virtual reality experiences moving forward. It may also end up improving in-game accuracy over time.
Haptic Retargeting is an Intriguing Concept
One of the common gripes people have about virtual reality in its current form is how there is a disconnect between the user and objects they need to interact with. Accuracy can be quite a big problem with such scenarios. Microsoft has acknowledged this problem and is working on a solution. This solution is called haptic retargeting, and it will aid in the manipulation of a virtual object with appropriate passive haptic cues.
To put this into terms most people can understand, haptic retargeting will make it easier to interact with virtual reality.Right now, users tend to just miss the “target’ due to the VR hardware not registering their movements properly. This is a big problem that needs to be addressed, but it is much easier said than done. Especially when it comes to scaling such a solution to include multiple virtual objects.
To address this problem, the haptic targeting technology will create a visual cue modified human perception. Repurposing passive haptics leverages the dominance of vision even when the human senses conflict. In fact, one single physical prop can effectively provide passive haptics from multiple virtual objects. Digitally aligning physical and virtual objects is challenging, but an absolute necessity to make VR more appealing moving forward.
It will be quite interesting to see how haptic retargeting will be introduced in the VR world moving forward. It is possible we will see some visual “aids” in the VR environment moving forward. For example, interacting with a specific object may include multiple cursors on the screen. Touching either one of these will result in proper interaction with the object in question. It is definitely a concept to keep an eye.
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