The ultimate dream of many VR players is to experience true immersion in virtual reality; not just being able to hear and see the virtual world, but feel it with your whole body, too. Well, those dreams are soon to become a reality thanks to a collaboration between Somnium Space and Teslasuit, but you’re going to have to shell out if you want to give it a go.
Somnium Space and Teslasuit are developing a haptic suit, called the DK1. It has been announced (via a Medium post) that the DK1 suit will include full-body motion capture and comes with 68 haptic points capable of simulating a wide variety of physical sensations.
- These haptic feedback VR gloves are changing virtual reality
- Apple AR and VR might use haptic socks
- VR Cybershoes that let you walk on the spot ready for Oculus Quest
If you want to put these haptics to the test, Somnium Space has created five features and experiences for users to try out. Full-body tracking will allow you to map your movement in VR without the need for external trackers, while the physical XR interaction experience will let you feel the touch of other players in a social situation.
If you’ve missed the heart-pounding music of a concert your suit will help you finally feel that again with VR discos, or you can instead relax as the haptic suit mimics the feel of raindrops hitting your body. Finally, and probably most interestingly, is the AnnihilatorVR shooting game where users will be able to feel the impacts of shots on their bodies.
How to get a VR haptic suit for yourself
All of that is sure to sound amazing to you but here’s the bad news, you almost certainly won’t get one of these DK1 haptic suits. At least, not right now. That’s because from now until the end of July, only 10 suits will go on sale.
The 10 suits are being auctioned off on OpenSea and one DK1 suit is already selling for 10 WETH (wrapped ethereum) or just over $20,000 (Around £14,400 / AU$26,700). If you have that much cryptocurrency burning a hole in your digital wallet, then feel free to check out the first wave of auctions that end in just a few days at the time of writing.
However, if you’re like most of us and don’t just have $20,000 lying around you’ll have to wait until a more consumer-friendly option becomes available. With hugely popular headsets like the Oculus Quest 2 now firmly planting themselves as mainstream devices, we’re sure that a cheaper haptic suit option will come along to support VR players on a budget at some point. We might just have quite a bit longer before that happens.
