Japanese tech-company H2L, specializing in VR and body sharing, may introduce the first technology to instill physical feelings of pain in the metaverse.
H2L’s main product in the ‘Bodysharing’ category is an armband that identifies human muscles and allows a user’s avatar to mimic body movement to feel other people or objects around them. The armband uses electrical stimulation to control arm muscles, allowing users to experience sensations around their avatar.
“H2L technology conveys weight and resistance feeling to users and avatars on the Metaverse, not only pain,”
the company said on Twitter.
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“Feeling pain enables us to turn the metaverse world into a real [world], with increased feelings of presence and immersion,”
Emi Tamaki, CEO and co-founder of H2L told the Financial Times.
Tamaki specializes in haptic technologies and has a Ph.D. in engineering from the Univerity of Tokyo. After a near-death experience due to congenital heart disease in her late teens, she decided to deepen the capabilities of haptic technology with the aim of linking people’s physical experiences with computers.
“I realised life was precious so I decided to work on a new field that I really wanted to dig into, as there was no one doing research at the time,”
she explained.
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Tamaki then founded H2L, which is now valued at $42 million and has raised $8.4 million for the development of its products. H2L plans to launch an initial public offering estimated at $168 million within the next five years.
On the Flipside
- According to Tracxn, the top 10 virtual-reality startups in Japan have already raised $60 million to further develop the VR and metaverse industry.
