Most of the news we hear these days in regards to virtual reality (VR) seems to be centered around the video game market. That is great if you are a gamer, but what about other areas of application?
Valkyrie Industries is set to approach the VR market from another angle: by targeting professional and industrial needs.
This seed-funded startup aims to provide cutting edge technology by bringing the natural feeling of touch, known as haptics, to VR. Their system intends to deliver remote procedural training in medicine, industry, and the military, as well as catering to real estate showings and touch-before-you-buy applications. They also someday seek for their product to be involved in teleoperation, which would give wearers the ability to control and manipulate objects at a safe distance in otherwise unsafe situations.
A realistic feeling of touch in VR has yet to be successfully achieved due to its innate complexities, but Valkyrie Industries wants to change that. Their project seeks to combine an intensive knowledge of physiology, materials, electronics, and software engineering into a wearable piece of equipment. This equipment will allow the user to feel textures as well as sense the feeling of force and weight. At the same time, they want their product to allow for spatially unlimited use, scalability, and modularity, all within a cost-effective solution for end consumers.
Does this mean you may see something from Valkyrie Industries in your own home in the near future? Probably not, since the cost of materials alone for their current prototype starts at around $1.5k. But they have already garnered interest from both high profile companies and government industries.
