Haptikos unveils a hand exoskeleton for grabbing digital things in XR

Haptikos has unveiled a hand exoskeleton, meant to let you to use your hands with precision in haptic applications. It works with extended reality (XR) devices.

Based in Sunnyvale, California, and Athens, Greece, Haptikos came out of stealth at the MIT Experiential Innovation Event in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The company also announced it raised $2.7 million in funding. In this contraption, you wear one on both hands. The exoskeleton can mimmick the feel of textures. It create the sensation of tactile feedback, and provides kinesthetics for learning through touch.

The exoskeleton lets you grab things in a virtual world with your fingers. It attaches to your hand via a strap. The exoskeleton fingers attach to your fingertips. It kind of looks like a big spider on the back of your hand. It could eventually be a consumer technology. But for now, it’s focused on robotics, manufacturing, defense, medical, and other business applications. It’s aimed at any XR applications that can use a complete sense of touch, said Greg Agriopoulos, CEO of Haptikos, in an interview with GamesBeat.

“We live in a time where digital interactions are an integral part of our daily lives, from social media to work experiences,” said Agriopoulos. “Our presence in the digital world still continues to grow. And as these trends accelerate, we can make this interaction more human.”

And it’s not just hardware. It’s part of the Haptikos ecosystem of integrated hardware and software. It’s priced at $2,500 per evaluation unit and available singly as well. The eventual goal is a sub-$1000 final price point by 2026 when the final production units ship. 

Paired with the company’s AI-infused Haptik OS (spelled haptik_OS by the company), the exoskeleton and OS combination brings a full sense of touch to VR and AR apps and other use cases. The tech is available for licensing.

“We are extremely excited to finally be emerging from stealth in the hallowed halls of MIT, where their slogan of ‘mens et manus’ – Latin for ‘to mind and hand’ – has taken on a new and very literal meaning,” said Agriopoulos. “Competitive haptics solutions are normally glove-based, and never fit correctly on most hands — our exoskeleton fits everyone perfectly, is far more accurate, far less costly and is the only solution coupled with an actual software solution that makes it genuinely useful across a range of markets.”

Haptikos Exoskeleton

The company is the brain child of Agriopoulos and Vasilapostolos Ouranis, who are in Athens, Greece. Ouranis said the funding came through European Union programs such as XR2Industry and XR4ED. Those give non-dilutive funding to support cutting-edge innovation in the sector.

The exoskeleton prototype makes it possible to feel the distinct sensations of different materials, from smooth surfaces to intricate textures. Whether handling virtual objects in training or design, Haptikos makes digital environments feel tangible and lifelike, enhancing overall realism.

It has a rise of 12 milliseconds and a fall time of 55 milliseconds. Haptikos said that ensures every touch and interaction feels immediate and smooth.

The Haptikos hand exoskeleton has 24 degrees of freedom (DoF) per hand. It has sub-millimeter motion accuracy. And it has eight hours continuous usage, beating long-shipping commercial alternatives. Because the company controls every joint, it says users can feel lifelike movements from the most delicate gestures to the most complex actions.

“It’s a human-machine interaction solution. You can use it for VR, AR, and robotics. We have customers doing that already. There is no need to recalibrate every time that we are reusing it,” Agriopoulos said. “We see these limitations in several hardware solutions out there, where they use either in measurement units that they have drift effects and they have to recalibrate the system.”

The company takes AI and tailors the interactions for each specific application.

Each exoskeleton includes tracking sensors and haptic sensors. Kinesthetic sensors will be added later in 2025.

In our interview, Agriopoulos said our senses demand full support and our fingers in particular need high accuracy. He said the exoskeleton can be used for high-dexterity training for things like surgeons in medical applications. It also has defense and manufacturing applications where engineers hold virtual objects or do training for maintenance in cockpits. It can track motion and tech robots specific tasks. Machine operators also want precise finger control when they operating machines remotely.

Agriopoulos said the tech is seamlessly integrated. It has a sophisticated software ecosystem, advanced hardware, and an AI-powered software development kit to create lifelike virtual fingers.

“But what really sets our solution apart is the right balance between performance, ease of use, and adaptability,” he said. “We managed to make it affordable, ensuring access to everybody who sees value in our system.”

The company collaborated with industry leaders like Siemens and Leonardo to refine the technology and validate its potential.

Agriopoulos, pointing to a tech pioneer, said, “As Alan Kay said, ‘People who are really serious about software should make their own hardware.’ This is our philosophy. When we started this journey, there wasn’t hardware available that could support our software framework. And this actually motivated us to build our own. It ensures that every element of our solution works in perfect harmony to deliver natural interactions and experiences.”

The company focused its research on excellence in motion tracking. It can track 24 degrees of freedom per hand. It also has sub-millimeter motion accuracy in every one of these degrees.

“Whether it’s about a surgeon or an engineer, they have the capability to perform every gesture they want and the system can capture every high fidelity motion,” Agriopoulos said. “So when we design the experiences, we know where every bone of our system is placed. We can more meaningfully drive and fire the subject sensors. So we see how important is the level of accuracy that the motion tracking provides in order to provide kinesthetic feedback.”

Feedback on the experience

“Haptikos exoskeletons have expanded the training program for the postpartum balloon procedure,” said Aoife Mcevoy, specialist registrar and clinical tutor in Obstetrics & Gynecology National Maternity Hospital at the UC Davis School of Medicine, in a statement. “Both clinicians and students experienced a significant improvement in their procedural skills following the use of Haptikos. The realistic tactile feedback and precise control enabled by Haptikos allowed for a more immersive and effective learning experience, greatly enhancing trainee confidence levels in their skillset for this critical procedure.”

Through these sensors, Haptikos tracks the movement of each hand joint with precise detail. This means full, natural control over every motion. It ranges from finger curls to complex hand gestures, making digital interactions feel fluid and intuitive.

“Haptikos really impressed the entire MIT Innovation Technology team with their advanced haptics, and we are extremely pleased they saw the value of launching at our premiere event in tandem with the MIT Reality Hack,” said Maria Rice, Executive Director of the MIT Reality Hack, in a statement. “Haptics have been a long-overlooked component of a complete XR solution, and their combination of haptics, operating system and AI combined with the industry-leading Unity SDK is a win for all developers seeking the next XR frontier.”

Haptikos launched at the the first-annual MIT Experiential Event in January of 2025. It has the singular mission of delivering the most lifelike and immersive touch-based spatial experiences.

It will be available for less than half the cost of competing solutions, the company said. And it has two passive feedback systems for tactile feedback. It’s a motor-based vibration interaction where you can program the intensity based on the friction. The aim is to balancing the simulation and creating the illusion that you are touching something.

They started with a glove solution, but they saw limitations. One of them is that your hand gets sweaty after a certain amount of time. And the integration of kinesthetic feedback is hard. Lastly, there are many different sizes for hands and it’s hard to make a glove to fit all of them. The exoskeleton just needs contact with your fingertips and a strap across your palm. It rests on the top of your hand. The kinesthetic feedback is more accurate. You can use it for a good amount of time, Agriopoulos said.

Haptik OS

The Haptik OS app is the central hub for connecting the Haptikos exoskeleton. It seamlessly integrates their capabilities into projects and motion control. And it redirects this data into the Unity Software Development Kit (SDK).

The Haptik OS is itself at the core of the Haptikos ecosystem. It connects developers, designers, and end-users to create lifelike, intuitive and immersive experiences. Through built-in AI functionality, Haptik_OS automatically adapts pre-built libraries into new haptic XR applications. It does so in Unity, simplifying both integration and scaling.

The Haptik OS is available via three tiers of license. For freemium, the OS has basic tools for developers to start exploring. The basic tier has software development kit (SDK) for integration into applications. And there’s a pro tier with full access to AI-driven tools for automated customization.

The company has eight full-time people and seven part-time people.