In Steven Spielberg’s 2018 film, Ready Player One, based on the 2011 book by Ernest Cline, people enter an immersive world of virtual reality called the OASIS. What was most gripping about the futuristic tech in this sci-fi movie was not the VR goggles, which don’t seem so far off from the headsets currently sold by Oculus, HTC, and others. It was the engagement of a sense beyond sight and sound: touch.

Characters wore gloves with feedback that let them feel the imaginary objects in their hands. They could upgrade to full-body suits that reproduced the force of a punch to the chest or the stroking of a caress. And yet these capabilities, too, might not be as far off as we imagine.

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