Soft robotics is being used by the researches at University of California – San Diego to create a glove that give tactile feedback to the user while experiencing a Virtual Reality program. Jurgen Schulze, a researcher at the Qualcomm Institute at UC San Diego, has assembled the prototype of a glove which can realistically simulate the feeling of playing a virtual piano keyboard.

As of now most Virtual Reality environments use remote type devices that vibrate when the user touches a virtual surface. This is unrealistic as per Jurgen Schulze, who says with their prototype glove they  are trying to make the user feel like they’re in the actual environment from a tactile point of view.

Michael Tolley, a mechanical engineering professor at the Jacobs School of Engineering at UC San Diego says that the prototype is surprisingly effective. It has a Leap Motion sensor, a custom fluidic control board, and  soft robotic components in the glove that individually inflate or deflate. These allow the glove to mimic through virtual reality what the person would actually feel in the real world. This is an interesting science experiment that seeks to make virtual reality as real as possible.