Facebook has filed a patent application for a bracelet that tracks finger movements, reading out the nerve signals inside the user's wrist. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is used to convert these signals to the correct position of the fingers.
Two variants of the device are described. In one of them, the active signal is sent through the wrist.
Based on how the signal passing through the tendons and muscles of the arm changes, their position can be determined.
In another embodiment, no active signal is transmitted. Instead, the device immediately reads the hand position impedance without intercepting the signal.
Facebook does not seem to be the only company working on this interesting concept. New
York CTRL-Labs posted a video with a similar bracelet on YouTube.
The ability to directly use each of your fingers adds a whole new level of VR interactivity. However, today this functionality is absent in almost all consumer VR headsets. Recall that Leap Motion sent a finger tracking kit for the Oculus DK2 back in 2014,
but the tracking quality at the time left much to be desired.
Facebook has long been actively exploring optical finger tracking. At the same time, HTC announced finger tracking for the Vive Pro at the end of last year, but this feature is not yet integrated into the device, and the quality of tracking is currently unknown.
If the device described in the patent really works, it can lead to finger tracking in VR without having to process information from multiple cameras aimed at your fingers. Also, since the device is independent of the cameras,
tracking will work at all angles regardless of the position of the virtual reality headset itself.
VRGeek is pleased to see that a compact finger tracking device is already being developed within the company and may be presented very soon.
