Customers in industrial, auto and medical markets are already designing products using a modified version of the Forte Gloves.
 
Virtual reality (VR) has the potential to change the way so many tasks are handled today. However, one of the needs for VR to become more mainstream is the ability for users to “feel” more accurately with their digital “hands.” BeBop Sensors may have solved this need with its Forte Wireless Data Glove.
 
Adding haptics and accurate rapid sensing, BeBop Sensors’ Forte Wireless Data Glove can be used for a wide range of applications, including VR, medical, gaming, industrial and more. The gloves one-size-fits-all, and can handle more than 15 hours of wireless use. They have received much attention, including TIME Magazine’s prestigious Best Inventions 2018 Award.
 
“…Forte wireless gloves … allow users to grab and manipulate digital objects as if they actually existed in real life,” said Patrick Lucas Austin, technology columnist, TIME Magazine, in presenting the award.
 
Sri Peruvemba, VP of strategy, BeBop Sensors, said that developing the data gloves was a challenge, as nothing like it existed.
 
“Such a product did not exist before so we designed everything from scratch,” he said.  “How many sizes of gloves do we make? Do we make male and female versions? We designed a universal glove that fits everyone, and that design took a lot of ingenuity and some technical hurdles.
 
“We had to design the sensors so that we didn’t use too many of them, creating extra weight and power consuming elements, yet we have an elegant design that will capture everything that is critical,” Peruvemba added. “Haptic actuators at the fingertip were also inventions we needed to develop to overcome obstacles.”
 
Peruvemba observed that the Forte Wireless gloves were designed to remove the “virtual” in VR applications.
 
“Those devices already had great displays, providing a visual experience akin to reality, and the audio was superb, but there was no touch,” Peruvemba said. “BeBop Forte Gloves are wireless, works for 15 hours on a single charge via USB, can communicate via Bluetooth, and one size fits all.
 
“It’s light, and the sensors are super sensitive and accurate,” he added. “When you press a trigger in an electronic game, we have the speed that matches the visuals with no lag,  something other technologies aren’t able to do. We then incorporated haptic actuators into the gloves, so not only can you see precisely where your hand is and each of your fingers, but we sense bend, twist, force and stretch and we could now ‘feel’ the haptics. The sensation of touching something in a VR environment and getting that feeling/sensation is what makes this an awesome product. We can input hundreds of ‘waveforms/signals’ into the gloves to mimic various ‘feeling.’ This product is now being designed as an accessory to VR sets.”
 
Flexible and printed electronics are playing a key role in the gloves, as printed inks create the interconnects between the flexible fabric sensor elements and the processing engines/power sources.
 
“Our sensors are flexible and they extend the length of the fingers, cover a portion of the palm and can detect force, bend, twist and stretch,” Peruvemba noted.
 
The Forte gloves are drawing interest in numerous markets. Peruvembanoted that BeBop Sensors now has customers in industrial, auto and medical markets that are designing products using a modified version of the Forte Gloves.
 
“In industrial and auto applications, OEMs are using the gloves to measure force felt by workers while doing various manufacturing tasks,” he added. “They are measuring productivity for a given task. Our gloves help OEMs design better workflow and reduce stress on the workers’ hands. In medical application, OEMs are using our gloves in VR surgical training applications, among others.”
 
Peruvemba believes that consumers will see the Forte gloves next year.
 
“We are working with OEMs in four different markets and multiple OEMs in some markets, and we expect our gloves to be released in mass production by our customers next calendar year,” Peruvemba said.
 
 

BeBop Sensors’ Forte Wireless Data Glove received TIME Magazine’s Best Inventions 2018 Award. (Source: BeBop Sensors)