One of the biggest and most ongoing problems VR faces is the problem of tactile touch feedback. Currently, the best solution is haptic rumble on the tips of our fingers ala conventional controllers. Explain to any joe schmoe how modern VR works and inevitably the question of "how do I touch objects that aren't there" gets raised.
It's not like the concept isn't hard to figure out, but the execution has proven extremely difficult. Enter Dexmo, a glove-like series of actuators that provides resistance to the digits of your fingers, extending to the tips of your fingers, to provide real-world shapes of objects as you touch them.
The way Dexmo works is that the position of your hands are tracked as they approach 3D objects. Once collision between your tracked hand and an object occurs, actuators resting on the top of your hand pull onto pivots on your fingers, which locks them from moving forward. This allows you to actually feel the shape of objects as you touch them, rather than merely rumbling when you approach them.
Regarding safety, apparently these actuators don't actually pull on your fingers, but merely prevent them from pushing forward, hence the risk of the machine malfunctioning and pulling your finger back and breaking it seems unlikely. Further, these gloves are being developed in close cooperation with Sixense, so they will work with the STEM system to provide positional tracking of your limbs if you wish to use that model. Presumably, because of the Sixense SDK's cross compatibility, it'll work with PrioVR as well.
This is the first real big push for tactile touch feedback I've seen. The creator of these gloves claims they intend to try and sell below $200, and are looking into a kickstarter. Probably worth keeping an eye on. Currently, the most obvious problem is the binary states of resistance it provides. Either you're touching something solid, or not. There is no way to currently approximate feelings of touching something soft or mailable. it's either solid and hard, or not.
