Oculus Touch controllers are your real hands in the virtual world

Oculus Touch controllers will allow you to bring your real hands into virtual reality, Oculus Founder Palmer Luckey announced at the Oculus reveal event today.

The prototype system is comprised are two wireless controllers, mirror imaged for each hand. The Oculus Touch controllers, Luckey said, use the same tracking technology as the Oculus Rift headset. Each has an analog stick, two buttons and a trigger. Unlike the compatible Xbox One controller, the buttons are split between two hands. Both have haptic capabilities, which will allow players to feel feedback when hanging out in virtual reality.

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Lucky said Oculus VR had several priorities in mind, including the presence of your hands in VR; the ability to manipulate virtual objects using your hands; a "low mental load," so it's obvious and intuitive to use; support for communicative gestures like giving thumbs up and waiving; support for traditional inputs, like those you'd find in a game controller; and the need to be lightweight.

The Oculus Touch controllers don't have any wires, but they do have loops, like Nintendo included with the Wiimote.

Lucky said that Oculus VR created a demo called Toybox where people can test the controllers, beginning next week at E3.