JAKARTA – The explosion of the metaverse in the last few months has prompted various companies to develop various tools to support sustainability in the virtual world. One of the Japanese technology companies, H2L, recently developed a device that can make metaverse users feel pain like in the real world.
That means users who touch in the virtual world will feel the touch similar to that in the real world. Likewise if the user gets a slap from someone else in the metaverse. In addition, users will also be able to feel the grip of the bird's claws when the virtual bird is perched on someone's finger or arm.
H2L is a company that focuses on developing Virtual Reality (VR) and Bodysharing devices. The company managed to develop the first technology that can provide physical pain in the metaverse.
H2L technology conveys weight and resistance feeling to users and avatars on the Metaverse, not only pain. Please read also her interview.H2L teknolojisi, Metaverse'deki kullanıcılara ve avatarlara sadece acıyı değil, ağırlık ve direnç hissini iletir.@SugiuraEri @FT https://t.co/E3IkPT9oMX
— h2linc (@h2linc) March 21, 2022
The company has Bodysharing products in the form of armbands that are able to identify human muscle movements. This allows the user's avatar to have the ability to imitate body movements and feel the touch of people and objects around it, as reported by Dailycoin.
The armband utilizes electrical stimulation to control arm muscles, allowing the user to feel sensations around the avatar.
"H2L technology conveys a feeling of heaviness and resistance to users and avatars on Metaverse, not just pain," the company wrote in a Twitter social media post.
H2L CEO and founder Emi Tamaki stated that the ability to feel pain can change the atmosphere in the metaverse world as it does in the real world.
“Feeling pain allows us to turn the metaverse world into a real [world], with an increased feeling of presence and immersion,” says Emi Tamaki as reported by the Financial Times.
The founder of H2L focuses on developing haptic technology and has earned a Ph.D in engineering at the University of Tokyo. For information, Tamaki had experienced congenital heart disease in his teens. This situation prompted him to deepen his haptic technology skills with the aim of connecting one's physical experience with a computer.
“I realized life is precious, so I decided to work in a new field that I really wanted to explore, because nobody was doing research at the time,” he said.
After that he founded the H2L startup. Currently, the technology company is valued at US$42 million (Rp602.9 billion) and has managed to raise funding of US$8.4 million (around Rp120 billion) which will be used for the company's product development.
H2L plans to go public by launching an initial public offering (IPO) which is predicted to reach US$168 million (Rp2.4 trillion) in the next 5 years.
The presence of H2L is likely to have a major impact on the development of the metaverse itself. Companies that are able to connect feelings of pain to computers will have a tremendous effect on virtual world audiences in the future.
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