Manus has been well known as manufacturers of Prime gloves providing competition to Senso VR Gloves. Now they have made their foray into full-body VR solutions and pulled ahead of Senso.
The enterprise-level VR solution has been named Manus Polygon and will be available from June 2020. Priced at above $3000/piece, the program bundle would be accompanied by haptic Manus gloves.
The principal clients for this application would be virtual team collaboration and VR Based Training.
Polygon was officially launched at CES 2020 back in January. It uses HTC Vive pucks for arms, waist, and legs. In all, five of these have to be used alongside Manus augmented reality gloves.
The program would require the use of HTC Vive or Steam VR headsets by each user.
Advantages Of Using Manus Polygon
The simulated work environment is becoming a matter of great interest. Not only does it connect team members from across the globe, but it cuts down the need for travel and time.
In the past Manus has suitably demonstrated the use of AR gloves and their effectiveness when compared to traditional hand controllers.
Due to haptic feedback, the gloves provide the user with a sense of touch in virtual reality that is a step closer to being authentic.
To be clear, Manus does not aim Polygon to be a purely VR product but as a mixed reality system that combines both the real world and the virtual seamlessly. NASA has already been using Manus Prime for training astronauts for the International Space Station.
Innovative Polygon IK-system
At the heart of the Polygon is a superior inverse kinematics software platform developed by the Manus team.
From the location data of five HTC trackers, it creates complete avatars that are lifelike and credible. The software also allows for advanced self-calibration allowing each puck to work to its optimum potential. The need for user adjustments is minimal, and a non-techie would be comfortable using it without too much training. A unique feature known as networked object location allows several points of view of the same object to different users.
Multiplayer Capability
- The participants can either be situated in the same local area network or across the globe. The system allows for multiplayer object tracking using the Unity engine. The use of the Unreal Engine would be possible after a few months with a separate plugin.
Though the sticker price of Manus Polygon may seem pricey at first sight, it is far less than having a few team members actually congregate.
