Virtual reality (VR) is supposed to offer users an immersive experience by essentially shutting users out of the real world through the use of a headset. However, it’s not quite the complete experience because while you might feel like you’re in another world, you can’t exactly touch or feel what you’re seeing.
However, Shiftall has taken the wraps off an interesting gadget called the Pebble Feel that will apparently allow users to feel both hot or cold while they are in a VR simulation. It’s actually quite a simple idea where it features a plate integrated into a body harness that can either heat up or cool down, thus allowing users to feel changes in temperature while they’re in VR.
According to the company, “The Pebble Feel is a VR experience that allows you to “go to that area and feel hot (or cold)” by simply customizing the world of your VR metaverse, such as VRChat or NeosVR. This is a device. The temperature can be freely controlled between 9°C(48°F) to 42°C(107°F) in 25℃(77°F) environment, and when you design your VR world, just embed the temperature information according to the virtual location.”
It’s quite a novel idea although we’re not sure how well it actually works or how much more of an immersive experience it can be, but it’s interesting nonetheless. It also has some practical benefits where during the summer, it might be able to be used to cool you down, or during the winter where it can help keep you warm.
Filed in . Read more about CES, Ces 2022 and Virtual Reality (VR).