A Haptic suit lets you feel pain when you play video games. That means if you get punched, shot, touched, or any other physical contact, you will feel it.
bHaptics is a company behind the popular haptic technology. The company creates TactSuit haptic vests for Virtual Reality gaming. bHaptics was founded in 2015 as a privately held company. bHaptics suits offer a physical interface between a user’s skin and the VR world and allow gamers to enjoy virtual reality with haptic, visual, and audio feedback. The primary office is located in Daejeon, South Korea. Kiuk Gwak, Wonho Yu, and Sangwon Choi are the founders of bHaptics.
bHaptics – review in 2022
In 2022, bHaptics will reveal the first consumer-ready haptic gloves, TactGlove, at CES 2022. The TactGlove is a VR gaming glove with one delicate actuator for each finger and is compatible with existing camera-based hand tracking systems. You get 4 hours of playtime on wireless on the TactGlove. It is stretchable and lightweight, so it is very comfortable. It costs $299.00 on the bhaptics.com website. This article reviews bHaptics and also Woojer vs bHaptics.
bHaptics – vest review
Thanks to haptic vests, it is possible to experience VR not only as a visual experience. bHaptics offers the most comprehensive haptic vests to date for arcade and home users.
The haptic vest has a very similar shape to a bulletproof vest and provides 40 independent motors integrated into the front and back so you can feel the virtual experience on your own body. bHaptics offers additional motorized optional accessories to make the experience even more intense than ever before. Additional equipment for hands, arms, feet, and face is available. The amount of motors in comparison to the vest is shorter but the amount has been adapted to the respective body parts. The foot and hand area has three while the arm and face area has up to 6 motors which are as independent as the vest. Each accessory can be connected to the PC via Bluetooth and comes with a Bluetooth dongle and a USB charging cable. Washable inserts are not included with the accessories but the motor cover sheets can be removed to clean dirty spots. The rechargeable batteries come with 5-hour battery life, but promise different runtimes – 8 and a half for the face,18 and a half for the arms, and almost 37 hours for the hands and feet. There are additional mounts for five trackers to get the best immersion of your VR experience.
Putting on the vest is very simple. Since the vest is sleeveless it is possible to take it on and off in a short time without wasting much time. The velcro belt around the waist
determines the size when worn for the first time, and then in the future, only the zipper can be used (as long as the size is not changed). The design has been well thought of by bHaptics to give the user a good feeling despite the motors. Although there is not much fabric between the built-in motors and their cables, the vest does not feel uncomfortable.
bHaptics – Tactsuit review
The Tactsuit is a vest that you put on that has motors in it.
The motors have an off-balance weight, so when the motor spins, it creates a vibrational sensation. The bHaptics Tactsuit vibrations feel like massages. You can change the settings of the intensity to what you prefer.
You can use the bHaptics Tactsuit with PC-VR and a standalone quest 2 headset and it connects via Bluetooth.
bHaptics Tactsuit supports over 100 games, but you have to make sure that the game you want to play is compatible with bHaptics before buying the vest.
bHaptics x40 review
The bHaptics Tactsuit x40 has 40 motors or vibration points and costs $500. It has up to 18 hrs of playtime and is designed to up your gameplay immersion by producing location-based sensations. Not only will you feel where you were hit, but you will notice a big difference between a shot, a stab, or an explosion. It works with PC-VR, the Oculus Quest. It has a 3.5-millimeter jack that can be used for audio-based haptics, so you can just plug in your phone and immediately you start enjoying the bass from your favorite music. The vest weighs less than 4 pounds and is also one size fits all.
For PC-VR, all you have to do is install the USB Bluetooth adapter, download the bHaptics software, and start playing natively supported games. What helps sell the sensation is the location-based vibrational patterns, so you will feel a sword slice in the direction which it hit you, you will feel recoil when you fire a gun placed right in your shoulder, and there are much more exotic sensations like being scanned or healed in games. The overall accuracy, intensity, and immersion that this vest produces vary greatly from game to game.
For extra features, any audio playing on your computer can be sent to the suit to produce vibrational patterns.
Woojer vs bHaptics
What makes bHaptics unique from Woojer is that Bhaptics has game integration which means that there is a specific pattern depending on the game you’re playing. Woojer is audio-based which means that the vest vibrates to the sound of the music. This section covers a comparison between the Woojer and bHaptics vest.
The Woojer Vest Edge has a 360-degree experience with six haptic transducers laid in a stereo format. The Bluetooth is low latency and can be used outside of your home. You can connect them to your headphones either wired or wireless. You can adjust the sensitivity and the volume of the device easily with the physical buttons on the vest. The vest weighs 2 kilograms with a battery life of up to 8 hours. This vest costs $349.
The bHaptics Tactsuit X40 is much lighter than the Woojer vest edge by 1.7 kilograms. The bHaptics Tactsuit can also be used outside the home and has support for other devices whether it’s a phone or console, which is similar to the Woojer. The battery life ranges up to 18 hours which is much more than the Woojer. The bHaptics vest is more comfortable than the Woojer.
The Woojer and bHaptics vest are both great options but there is a clear difference. The Woojer vest is perfect for audio feedback when listening to music. The physical adjustments to sensation and the volume are good, plus the fact that it is much cheaper makes it a good option.
The Woojer is not comfortable for larger frames, and the battery life is much shorter. The latency for the VR immersive experience is also lacking. The recoil would shoot back a little late which made it feel immersion-breaking.
The advantage of the bHaptics vest is the 40 precise feedback points for getting shot or stabbed. The connectivity, comfortability, battery life, and weight are also reasons why this is a better choice. These are the main points when discussing Woojer vs bHaptics.
How much is a bHaptics tactsuit?
As said earlier, the bHaptics tactsuit x40 costs $500. The Tactsuit x16 costs $300. You can get the Tactsuit x40 for a backpack PC for $599. The sleeves for the arms, hands and feet pair cost $249 each. When comparing Woojer vs bHaptics price, bHaptics is more expensive.
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