Earlier this week HTC revealed several new accessories for the Vive head-mounted display (HMD), including a Deluxe Audio Strap and the Vive Tracker. The latter can be attached to various objects to utilise in virtual reality (VR) including gloves, which Noitom has done with its Hi5 VR Gloves.

Debuting at CES 2017, the Noitom Hi5 VR Glove is the company’s first consumers orientated product, featuring wireless connectivity and full-finger actions. Noitom usually specialises in full-body motion capture recently releasing its Perception Neuron system, so its used this expertise for the Hi5 VR Glove. Using similar technology to that in Perception Neuron, the wireless Hi5 Glove works with a series of IMU (Inertial Measurement Unit) sensors that can accurately relay motion data from glove to computer in real-time. The Hi5 VR Glove contains six, nine-axis IMU sensors on each finger for full left-and-right-hand motion capture with high-performance tracking. Noitom has then combined it with the Vive Tracker to offer full tracking using its Lighthouse sensors.

“The ability to capture complete hand movement and simulate all five fingers in VR in addition to providing complete, un-occluded motion is a capability we have finally been able to achieve with the Hi5 Glove,” says Dr. Tristan Dai, CTO of Noitom and the creator of Hi5. “With freedom of movement and accurately captured data, Hi5 users will be able to immerse themselves seamlessly into their virtual worlds. We look forward to a continued partnership with HTC VIVE and to giving consumers the opportunity to explore countless interactive experiences in VR.”

Noitom partnered with HTC Vive for CES 2017, demoing the glove to attendees using custom-designed experience developed on Unity. A virtual sandbox called Project Alice, the one to two user experience will allow players to interact with objects and to use their hands to perform actions such as grabbing, throwing, stacking, and drawing in a 3D space.

“The Noitom Hi5 Glove is a critical component to delivering an immersive VR experience and building out the ever-growing Vive ecosystem,” said Dan O’Brien, VP Virtual Reality, HTC VIVE. “We built Vive to deliver the most immersive, room-scale VR experience on the market today. Companies like Noitom help us meet this vision and we’re excited to see what the Hi5 Glove offers to the VR experience.”