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US 11,231,781 B2Granted
Haptic gloves for virtual reality systems and methods of controlling the same
AssigneeIntel Corporation
InventorsYuan Xiong, Feiyue Zhai, Buddy Cao, Wenlong Yang
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Example haptic gloves for virtual reality systems and related methods are disclosed herein. An example apparatus disclosed herein includes a glove to be worn on a hand of a user, an ultrasonic array disposed on an inner surface of the glove, and a control unit to activate the ultrasonic array device to generate haptic feedback on the hand of the user.
Claims20
An apparatus comprising:
- a glove to be worn on a hand of a user;
- an array of ultrasonic generators on an inner surface of the glove;
- and
- control circuitry to activate the ultrasonic generators to provide haptic feedback on the hand of the user, the ultrasonic generators, when activated, to generate sound waves in air, the sound waves respectively having repeating patterns of compressions and refractions, the ultrasonic generators arranged such that, when the ultrasonic generators are activated, the compressions of the sound waves interact at a distance from the ultrasonic generators to create a focused pressure point, the ultrasonic generators to be spaced from the hand of the user by the distance such that that the focused pressure point is created at or near skin on the hand of the user.
1 more element
A virtual reality system comprising:
- a headset to be worn by a user, the headset having a screen to display a virtual reality environment to the user;
- and
- a glove to be worn on a hand of the user, the glove including an ultrasonic array of ultrasonic generators to be spaced apart by a distance from skin on the hand of the user when the glove is worn by the user, when activated, the ultrasonic generators are to generate ultrasonic waves, respective ones of the waves having a corresponding repeating pattern of compressions and refractions, the ultrasonic generators arranged such that the compressions interact at the distance to collectively create a pressure on the hand of the user to simulate contact with an object in the virtual reality environment.
A non-transitory machine readable storage medium comprising instructions that, when executed, cause a machine to at least:
- determine a location of an object in a virtual reality environment;
- calculate a distance between a location of a section of a glove worn on a hand of a user and the location of the object in the virtual reality environment;
- and
- activate an array of ultrasonic generators inside the glove when the distance is zero or substantially zero, the ultrasonic generators are to, when activated, generate respective ultrasonic waves in air having repeating patterns of compressions and refractions, the compressions to interact to create a focused pressure point at or near skin on the hand of the user.
1 more element
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.