On Tuesday morning, HaptX, a startup that specializes in creating haptic gloves for VR, announced a $12 million Series A-1 funding round with participation from Verizon Ventures, among others. It’s a promising sign of life for a part of the VR industry that has yet to make a real appeal to consumers despite questions some have about its potential.
The gloves HaptX makes are more like hefty gauntlets and wouldn’t look totally out of place on a Marvel movie supervillain’s arms. Most of that bulk exists to house the small motors known as servos and sensors that provide tactile feedback to the user; pick up an object in VR with the gloves on, and your hand will feel resistance from motors and pulleys in the gloves.
