= P5 Virtual Reality Glove = http://www.robotgroup.net/eric/p5glove/glove_photo_lrg.gif [http://www.essentialreality.com Essential Reality VR Glove] Picked one of these up on sale for $20 from [http://www.tigerdirect.com Tiger Direct]. It is an interesting piece of technology. The base plugs up to the usb port. Each finger has a bend sensor. There are 7 led's and 4 buttons on the glove. The base station can see up to 4 of them at a time depending on the orientation of your hand. Essential Reality makes a software development kit available for linux and for Windows. Unfortunately, the Windows version only supports Visual C++. To get around using vile Micro$oft software, I have ported a linux GNU C program from Jason Mc Mullan that dumps the raw data from the glove. This program uses the [http://libusb-win32.sourceforge.net/ libusb] drivers for linux. Fortunately, some enterprising individuals have ported this package to Windows. I was able to compile the software and with a few tweaks, make it run. The glove sends packets that contain the status of each button, the value of the finger bend sensors, and from 0 to 4 x,y,z readings from the led's. The next step is to figure out how to convert those x,y,z readings into roll, pitch, and yaw data. /!\ Update 10/04/2004 - Carl Kenner has created a version of P5DLL.dll that is what Essential Reality should have released in the first place. It supports all languages instead of just yucky old M$ VC++. It also supports absolute mode instead of just relative mode. The code is available in the Yahoo groups files section here: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/p5glove/files/ /!\ Update 11/17/2004 I have written a Java program that utilizes Carl's P5DLL.dll and the javax comm api to control a [http://www.lynxmotion.com Lynxmotion] Arm. I have made the source code available. The new project page for the combined P5 Glove and Lynxmotion Arm is at RobotGlove. = The Code = [http://www.robotgroup.net/eric/p5glove/p5dump.c p5dump.c] Sohtturce code to dump program for Windows. [http://www.robotgroup.net/eric/p5glove/p5dump.exe p5dump.exe] The executable. Requires libusb-win32 to be installed. [http://www.robotgroup.net/eric/p5glove/p5glove.c p5glove.c] Source code for P5 Glove support routines. [http://www.robotgroup.net/eric/p5glove/p5glove.h p5glove.h] Include file for P5 Support routines. /!\ [http://www.robotgroup.net/eric/p5glove/RobotGlove.java RobotGlove.java] Portable Java program that allows a P5 glove to control a Lynxmotion robot arm. = Resources = [http://listen.to/simulus/p5glove http://listen.to/simulus/p5glove] A really great web page by Ross Becina. Lots of P5 info and links to VR glove info in general. [http://zzz.com.ru/zzz_original_site/roid/P5community.html http://zzz.com.ru/zzz_original_site/roid/P5community.html] Another great P5 resource. [http://p5glove.pbwiki.com] The P5 Glove Wiki site. A Wiki site devoted to P5. ---- This page is maintained by EricLundquist.