Reel Feel : Wearable Haptics for AR/VR

Chris Harrison and the Future Interfaces Group have created Reel Feel, a new device redefining wearable haptics for AR and VR.

Presented at CHI 2025, Reel Feel offers a unified solution to deliver multiple haptic sensations—such as rigidity, compliance, texture, and impulsive force—through a compact, shoulder-worn system. Making immersive, high-fidelity touch feedback more practical and accessible for real-world applications.

Haptic feedback has long been one of the most promising — and most challenging — frontiers in virtual and augmented reality. While many systems have been developed to simulate texture, pressure, or resistance, most focus on delivering just one type of sensation. Attempting to combine multiple haptic effects typically results in gear that is bulky, expensive, and often impractical to wear.

Today’s haptic systems tend to specialize. One may simulate the rigidity of an object, while another reproduces softness or texture. Merging these capabilities into a single solution has proven to be too heavy, too complex, or too costly for broad adoption—particularly in consumer-facing AR/VR/XR technologies. Reel Feel introduces a new approach: a compact, shoulder-worn haptic system capable of delivering a wide range of tactile sensations through one integrated, wearable device.

With Reel Feel, users can experience a wide range of tactile sensations within a single, unified system. It renders rigid geometry, such as the hardness of virtual surfaces, and supports object-bound haptic animations, where feedback follows the motion or interaction of specific virtual objects. The device also delivers impulsive forces—brief, sudden sensations like taps or jolts—while capturing surface compliance, allowing users to perceive variations in softness or firmness. Additionally, it enables fine-grained spatial effects, such as subtle shifts in texture across a surface, enhancing realism and immersion in virtual environments.

What sets Reel Feel apart is its ability to provide rich, multi-dimensional feedback without burdening the user’s hands. Traditional glove-based and exoskeletal systems tend to be cumbersome, often impeding natural hand movement. Reel Feel, by contrast, adds less than 10 grams of weight to the hands, allowing for full, unrestricted motion. This system was designed with real-world usability in mind. It is shoulder-mounted for increased mobility and comfort, self-contained with no need for external rigs, and engineered to be both low-cost and low-power. These attributes make it well-suited for eventual consumer adoption.

In user evaluations, Reel Feel consistently outperformed conventional vibrotactile systems in areas such as immersion, realism, and overall user satisfaction. Participants also demonstrated greater accuracy in identifying object compliance and spatial variations, suggesting a meaningful improvement in perceptual fidelity. By consolidating multiple feedback types into one elegant, wearable solution, Reel Feel represents a significant step forward in the development of immersive haptic systems. This technology has the potential to enhance user interaction across a wide array of applications—from gaming and entertainment to training, simulation, and product design.

Reel Feel represents a significant step toward the future of immersive technology—where realistic, multi-dimensional touch feedback can be delivered through practical, wearable systems. By addressing long-standing challenges in weight, complexity, and versatility, the FIG Lab’s innovation opens the door to more natural and intuitive interactions in AR, VR, and beyond. As the line between the digital and physical continues to blur, systems like Reel Feel are helping make that transition feel not just seamless—but tangible.