New Manus XR Gloves Demonstrate High Finger Tracking Accuracy

At GDC 2022, XR gloves creator Manus showed its new Quantum Metagloves, which, according to the company, show better finger tracking than its previous products.

The gloves use a magnetic tracking approach, which provides higher accuracy, especially when it comes to self-contact.

Manus showed how the Quantum Metagloves work using a real-time hand model that mirrored the wearer’s finger movements. The latency seen in the demo will supposedly not be present in enterprise use.

The Quantum Metagloves have a magnetic base on the back of the palm, and each finger has a module on the tip that is sensed in the magnetic field. Manus says this helps the gloves detect absolute finger length and width, which enables more accurate hand tracking when combined with a skeletal model of the hand that is scaled dynamically to the user.

The high accuracy demonstrated by the gloves is not perfect, however, as Manus says holding metallic or electronic items could throw off the tracking. The company promises it worked hard to make sure the gloves don't interfere with each other.

Road to VR reported that some of the poses didn't look that great. The demonstrator the issue could be solved by the calibration process that included similar poses.

Right now, the gloves are priced for enterprise use – a pair costs $9,000, although Manus wants to bring the Quantum Metagloves to consumers one day. Pre-orders should open in April, with the first gloves shipping at the end of Q3.

The company says it also plans to release a haptic version of the Metagloves, which will include per-finger haptics to enhance immersion in VR. 

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