Our project is called "Body Nodes" and it based a set of wearable body sensors that acts as controllers. The nodes can be used with an Oculus to immerge the user in a virtual reality game. As soon as the user "wears" the nodes, will be able to control the main character of the game.
The nodes can also give force feedback, which means they can vibrate at command. This makes the virtual reality game more real and enjoyable for the user.
This project is an evolution of VRWalker, that we already presented last year also at the Maker Faire, and which was only for the feet. In fact, it was a controller to be applied as an overshoes. This year we wanted to apply the same concepts and upgrade it to include all the rest of the body.
We also applied the same ideas in robotics. Instead of controlling the character of a videogame, we are capable of controlling a very simple robot arm (just a motor for now) to move with the user.
We made our own "body nodes", but actually any wearable with an accelerometer (like a smartwatch) can become a "body node" and integrate with our project.