If the surrounding hype is any indication, the Oculus Rift is going to be a massive hit next year. And since a good VR headset will need an equally capable VR controller, the company just announced the Oculus Touch, a pair of handheld motion controllers that will let you see and use your hands in virtual environments.
Designed to deliver a virtual hand presence, the controllers are meant to give the sensation that your in-game hands are actually your own. The virtual limbs will follow every action the physical hand takes, including the movement of the fingers, allowing for detailed interactions from swinging at opponents to grabbing objects to raking John Cena’s eyes at WWE 2K15 (well, we’re hoping you can do that, anyway).
The Oculus Touch consists of two controllers, one for each hand, with both getting an analog stick, a pair of buttons, an analog trigger, built-in haptic feedback, and a new input mechanism they’re calling the “hand trigger” that’s accessible via the middle finger, which you can use to prompt the hand to make a grabbing motion. Both are wireless, with integrated lanyards, so you can strap them onto your wrists to avoid dropping the controllers when you open your hands in-game. It uses the same IR LED constellation tracking system used in the Rift to enable precise, low-latency tracking of your hand in the environment, with multiple sensors scattered around the device, allowing it to detect hand-and-finger motions like pointing, waving, and more.
No pricing has been given, but the Oculus Touch is slated to debut in the first half of next year.