Getting Started

Install the HEXR SDK, trigger your first haptic event, and learn the core concepts — for Unity and Python.

Overview

HEXR is a wearable haptic glove that brings the sense of touch into VR, mixed reality and other interactive apps. At a high level, four steps take you from the glove to working haptic feedback in your project:

1. Connect

   The glove pairs wirelessly over Bluetooth (BLE) to your game or app — no cables to your machine.

2. Build

   Develop in Unity (via OpenXR, Meta OVR or MRTK) or drive the glove directly from Python.

3. Trigger

   Fire haptics from events in your code or from physics-based colliders in your scene — to simulate touch (pressure) or vibration.

4. Customize

   Address each finger independently, and tune every actuation across three parameters — intensity (target pressure), speed (how fast it ramps) and frequency (vibration).

HEXR relies on your headset or Leap Motion for hand-tracking and layers realistic feedback on top, with sub-20 ms response. This guide takes you from an empty project to your first haptic pulse — if you prefer to read code, jump straight to the Quickstart.

Prerequisites

• A HEXR glove and forearm driver (Glove 2.0)
• A headset with hand-tracking — Meta Quest 2 / 3 / 3S, Pico 4, or HoloLens — or an external tracker like Leap Motion (HEXR relies on this for tracking)
• Unity 2022.3 LTS or newer, or Python 3.9 or newer
• The HEXR SDK (from GitHub)

Installation

Pick your platform. In Unity, choose your runtime tutorial (OpenXR, Meta OVR or MRTK); for Python, install the library.

# Example: the OpenXR tutorial
git clone https://github.com/MicrotubeTechnologies/HexR-developer-tutorial-XR.git

git clone https://github.com/MicrotubeTechnologies/HaptGlovePython.git
cd HaptGlovePython
pip install -r requirements.txt

Quickstart

Connect to a glove and fire a short pulse when the user touches an object.

import asyncio
from bleak import BleakClient
from Haptics import Haptics

DEVICE_ADDRESS = "EC:C9:FF:45:92:86"   # your glove (see AddressDiscovery.py)
CHAR_UUID      = "0000ff01-0000-1000-8000-00805f9b34fb"

async def main():
    haptics = Haptics("right")
    async with BleakClient(DEVICE_ADDRESS) as client:
        # Pressure on all fingers — intensity 0.1–1.0
        data = haptics.hexr_pressure_multiple(
            ["Thumb","Index","Middle","Ring","Pinky"],
            [True]*5, [0.8]*5, [1.0]*5)
        await client.write_gatt_char(CHAR_UUID, data)
        await asyncio.sleep(5)

asyncio.run(main())

Core concepts

Haptics triggers

Haptics are triggered in one of two ways: by events you raise in code — a touch, a grasp, a release — or by physics-based colliders in your scene, where contacting or entering a collider fires the feedback automatically. Choose whichever suits the interaction: explicit events for full control, or colliders for hands-off, physics-driven touch.

Collider-based touch

For physics-driven feedback, HEXR places colliders on the fingertips and palm. These use Unity trigger-based colliders — when a fingertip or the palm overlaps a virtual object's collider, the trigger fires the haptic feedback, mimicking the sensation of touch. It's a hands-off way to feel objects in a scene without wiring up explicit events.

Actuators & fingers

Each glove exposes soft pneumatic actuators mapped to the fingers. You address feedback per finger, with a target intensity, a speed to reach it, and a frequency for vibration.

Hand-tracking

HEXR does not track your hand on its own — it relies on external hand-tracking, either from your headset (Meta Quest 2/3/3S, Pico 4, HoloLens) or a device like Leap Motion. HEXR adds the touch-feedback layer on top of that tracking.