When we think of metaverse, virtual reality or augmented reality, it automatically brings us to Meta, the company of Mark Zuckerberg, which spends almost lavishly to develop these technologies. We can also think of Apple which, next year, should launch its first AR/VR headset.
But like Meta and Apple, Samsung is also interested in these technologies. In the past, Samsung has already marketed virtual reality headsets in partnership with Meta, but finally abandoned the product.
In any case, today, Samsung is still thinking about new technologies to improve user immersion on virtual reality or augmented reality headsets. And among these technologies that could revolutionize the sector, there is the electronic skin or the e-skin.
A technology that could bring a real feeling of touch in the metaverse?
In a recent publication, Samsung discussed the development of the e-skin as well as the future uses of this technology. Indeed, the Korean giant has supported the research on the e-skin of Professor Unryong Jeong of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Pohang Technological University in Korea.
And regarding the metaverse, the researcher indicates that the electronic skin will allow you to feel the sensations of the avatars (and we are not talking only about pressure or vibrations, but also about temperature variations), or to share sensations with robots.
But more useful applications are also possible, in the field of medicine. For example, e-skin could replace the damaged skin of burn patients.
If the technology is promising, it will certainly take a long time to commercialize it. But in any case, Samsung’s post as well as the video posted on its Korean YouTube channel (don’t forget to enable subtitles) gives us a glimpse of technologies that could improve the immersion of AR or VR headsets in the future.
In the meantime, we will have to be content with haptic feedback. In the absence of electronic skin, manufacturers of virtual reality or augmented reality headsets are content for the moment with vibrations at the level of the controllers.
But there too, the immersion will be of better quality, thanks to new technologies and better algorithms, on the next products.
For example, in September, we have discovered that Meta bought the startup Lofelt. It has developed software that easily converts audio content into high-quality haptic feedback.
As we explained in our article on this subject, from an engine sound, Lofelt’s algorithm can generate vibrations giving the user the sensation of holding a steering wheel.