I bought my first VR headset, the Meta Quest 2, in September 2021. ever since then, I’ve been amazed at the technology from one of the cheapest VR headsets with a lot of capability and elegant features for the price. One of the really amazing things when I first put on the headset was the controller hand tracking. At first, I was confused because it was tracking where my fingers were on the controller. The demo and actual games with full hands (which is most VR games) work well. And it shows how immersive it is to use your actual fingers in the “metaverse” to interact with virtual objects., This, combined with the vibration motors, play wonderfully, making it almost feel like you’re picking up an actual thing.
From what I’ve found online and actually seen when taking apart the controller, the controllers have a ring that goes around the main controls such as the thumb rest, joystick, a/b buttons, etc. At first, it seems like it used sensors inside that ring to sense where your fingers are, but after more research, I don’t believe it does. Although I’m not sure, the sensor-like parts in the ring are currently being used.
The Quest 2’s controllers instead have a simple way of handling the finger placement tracking. It uses capacitive controls for all of the buttons and the thumbstick. A lot of devices feature capacitive touch thumbsticks, as well as Meta’s competitor in the VR space, Steam’s Vive Headset, a user posted on Reddit about a cable coming from the main thumbstick cap:
This was the primary response in the comments:
Capacitive sensors touch work in a way that your own body is being used as an electrical charge conductor that the device can react to. Almost every smartphone uses this same technology for its touchscreen. (more info about it at the bottom)
I also found another post about one of the original Oculus Touch controllers in which a user went into detail about how the tracking works on the controllers. I found this extremely informative. I recommend you read it. Link to the post here. They also attached an image with their reply showing different positions the quest’s controller can track your finger using the aforementioned capacitive touch sensors, which are represented by the marked blue spots on the controller:
this is a separate design controller, but I believe Meta still used this same function with the Quest 2 controllers.
Overall this is really fascinating to find out how different companies use capacitive touch sensors with various controllers to find where your finger is placed, which execute well to make the games more immersive.
If you have comments about this post, let me know below. If I missed some vital information / or mistakenly wrote about Quest 2’s technology, let me know below. (I am not a professional in this tech space, but I am curious to learn more about it.)
Reference and more info links:
“Do Oculus touch controllers have finger tracking” in depth on how the capacitive sensors work on the original design touch controllers:
“Meta Quest 2 controller breakdown and guide” I found this extremely helpful in taking apart my controller:
https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Oculus+Quest+2+Controller+Disassembly/147947
“how touch sensors work” this explains how the capacitive touch sensors you see more often work:
https://www.arrow.com/en/research-and-events/articles/how-touch-sensors-work
“What purpose does this cable have?” Reddit post asking what the purpose of the cable is for on the Vive VR headset:
