Microsoft's Research On Efficient Interaction With Objects Allows You To Feel Objects In VR

Virtual Reality is making leaps and bounds each day. Microsoft latest research video at SIGGRAPH showcases how they created virtual controls that you allow you to actually feel objects in VR. The core concept is to move beyond keyboard and mouse.

The project entitled Handpose will study the motion, interaction as well as accuracy of our hands with the substances in the Virtual World. By proper manipulation of sight and sound through a variety of systems, people can be convinced that they are actually interacting with something real enough.

The key concept here is as virtual reality gets more and more advanced, it would be harder to trick people to actually enjoy the experience without the sense of touch. Here is a video on Efficient and Precise Interaction:

That is just one of the total goodies, a short demonstration of how simple hand gestures could be the key to replace keyboard and mouse for our everyday usage in computers is given below. The system utilizes machine learning and a retail 3D camera:

This is some serious and interesting stuff by Microsoft on the VR segment. An in depth analysis is available on their Research Blog. When do you think this technology will be available for public?