Valve’s new controllers for SteamVR have shipped to developers.

Called Knuckles, the controllers are still in the prototype phase, but Valve has now revealed several details about how they work. For instance, to use them, you slide your hand into the main part of the controller; the strap will hold it in place, and you adjust the fit with the attached cord. Then, you're free to interact with objects.

That means you should be able to grab items and move around like you normally would, and because the controllers are supposed to have a fit that you can loosen or tighten, you won't be able to drop them easily. There’s also capacitive sensors that helps track your hand motions, including separate tracking for each finger.

In other words, Knuckles can tell whether your individual fingers are curled or straightened out, etc. Existing VR controllers, such as the Vive Wand for HTC Vive, do not offer such finger-tracking functionality, which obviously opens up a lot more use-cases when it comes to gripping and handling different things in a virtual world.

And from what we can tell so far, Knuckles appears to be more ergonomic than anything else available on the market, including the Oculus Touch controllers for Oculus Rift. Unfortunately, we still don’t know when Knuckles will be available for everyone to use, but we’ll be sure to keep you posted.

Valve Knuckles image 2
Valve