Virtual hands in VR

We use our hands every day: to grasp a cup of coffee, write text on a keyboard, or signal that we are about to say something important. We use our hands to interact with our environment and to help us communicate with each other without thinking about it. Wouldn't it be great to be able to do the same in virtual reality? However, accurate hand motions are not trivial to capture. In this course, we present the current state of the art when it comes to virtual hands. Starting with current examples for controlling and depicting hands in virtual reality (VR), we dive into the latest methods and technologies to capture hand motions. As hands can currently not be captured in every situation and as constraints stopping us from intersecting with objects are typically not available in VR, we present research on how to synthesize hand motions and simulate grasping motions. Finally, we provide an overview of our knowledge of how virtual hands are being perceived, resulting in practical tips on how to represent and handle virtual hands.