College - Author 1
College of Engineering
Department - Author 1
Electrical Engineering Department
Degree Name - Author 1
BS in Electrical Engineering
College - Author 2
College of Engineering
Department - Author 2
Computer Engineering Department
Degree - Author 2
BS in Computer Engineering
Date
6-2023
Primary Advisor
William L. Ahlgren, College of Engineering, Electrical Engineering Department
Abstract/Summary
The goal of this project is to produce a manufacturing plan for a consumer VR glove. The total addressable market of VR is over 170 million global users as of 2022 (Kolmar , 2022) with a serviceable available market of 300,000 users on Meta’s own social platform (Heath, 2022). The targeted Quest 2 platform utilizes handheld controllers, which causes a lack of immersivity in social settings and gaming scenarios. One common use of the platform involves social platforms such as “Horizons” where users meet in a virtual world to interact; handheld controllers don’t allow users to shake hands, make finger gestures, or touch each other’s avatars. Furthermore, users enjoy a breadth of different immersive games from first person shooters to rhythm block slicing games; in this setting, users often interact with physical objects and cannot sense their shape or their mass, nor can they finely interact with simple virtual mechanisms like weapon triggers. At the current time of writing, VR gloves that are readily available for purchase start at $5,000 and can go up to $10,000. However, the previously mentioned 300,000 users of Horizons fall into the consumer market, where accessibility/cost is more constraining; the hardware they use, the Meta Quest 2, costs $400 (Meta, 2022). Thus, these consumer users are unserved by the current market options. This project aims to provide increased immersivity in social and gaming scenarios at a price point that Quest 2 users can afford. Without a thorough customer analysis other than overall sentiment for mass adoption of VR glove technology, this project aims to produce the necessary manufacturing plan and demonstration to appropriately crowd-fund further efforts in offering a product. Deliverables of this project include two prototype demonstrations of the electrical system, mechanical system, and firmware as well as a manufacturing and production plan.
URL: https://digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/eesp/582