Diver-X

Diver-X
Information
Type	Private
Industry	Virtual reality, Human interface devices
Founded	March 2021
Founder	Yamato Sakoda, Kei Asano
Headquarters	Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan
Notable Personnel	Yamato Sakoda (CEO)
Products	ContactGlove, Magnetra, HalfDive
Website	https://diver-x.jp

Diver-X (Diver-X Inc., Japanese: Diver-X株式会社) is a Japanese hardware startup that develops virtual reality interface devices, with a focus on glove-type controllers, haptic feedback, and hand tracking. The company was founded in March 2021 and is based in the Kanda Jimbocho district of Chiyoda, Tokyo. It first drew attention for the HalfDive, an ambitious VR headset designed to be used while lying down, and then pivoted to the ContactGlove, a glove-shaped SteamVR controller that won a CES 2023 Innovation Award.

Diver-X was started by Yamato Sakoda, who founded the company directly after finishing high school and serves as its representative director and chief executive, together with co-founder and software engineer Kei Asano. Sakoda was named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 Japan list in 2023. The company describes its mission as providing interfaces that let people reach their maximum performance through hardware-level optimization, and it develops and manufactures XR-related equipment as well as tracking and haptic devices.

History

Diver-X was incorporated in March 2021. Its first product effort was the HalfDive, a VR system pitched as the world's first headset optimized for use in bed. The design openly took cues from the NerveGear device in the anime Sword Art Online, although it was a conventional display headset rather than any kind of brain interface. Instead of strapping tightly to the face, HalfDive was meant to cradle the head in a reclined, low-energy position.

The HalfDive launched a Kickstarter campaign in December 2021 with several tiers, including a varifocal version, ranging from roughly 700 to 3,900 US dollars. The project reached its funding goal, drawing about 177 backers and the equivalent of roughly 178,000 US dollars, but Diver-X cancelled the campaign on January 31, 2022 before any pledges were collected, so no backer was charged. The company said the headset was too niche to deliver profitably at small scale, that it could not bring the cost of major in-house components down enough, and that the resulting cash-flow strain made the project unworkable. It also concluded that, however optimized the device was, it amounted to a replacement for existing VR hardware rather than a genuinely new experience.

After shelving the headset, Diver-X turned to a smaller, more focused product. In December 2022 it opened a Kickstarter for the ContactGlove, a glove-type VR controller with finger tracking and haptic feedback. The campaign passed its goal of about 26 million yen (roughly 200,000 US dollars), and the glove went on to win a CES 2023 Innovation Award when it was shown in Las Vegas the following month. A second-generation ContactGlove2 followed, with preorders opening in 2024.

In June 2024 the company announced a Pre-Series A round of about 200 million yen, made up of roughly 180 million yen in equity and a 20 million yen loan from the Japan Finance Corporation. New investors included PKSHA Capital, Toyota Boshoku, and Iyo Bank Capital, alongside existing backer DEEPCORE. Diver-X said the money would go toward research, development, manufacturing, and sales of its human interface devices such as the ContactGlove, plus solutions for the manufacturing industry.

The company has continued to broaden its product line and adjust its focus. In 2025 it divested its position-tracking ContactTrack business and introduced new accessories, and in January 2026 it acquired a business license for the EXOS force-feedback device, signaling a move toward robotics and physical AI in addition to consumer VR.

Technology

Diver-X's hardware centers on letting users keep their hands free of a traditional controller while still tracking finger motion and delivering touch sensations. The ContactGlove uses a proprietary bend-sensor system to read the bending of each finger joint, so individual finger movement is reproduced in VR without optical hand tracking cameras. The gloves do not include built-in positional tracking; instead they mount external SteamVR trackers such as the Tundra Tracker or HTC Vive Tracker to locate the hands in space, and they can emulate controller button and stick inputs so they work with standard SteamVR titles.

The original ContactGlove's signature feature was its fingertip haptics. A tactile module built from shape memory alloy (SMA) micro-coils, developed in-house, contracts to press against the pad of the finger and approximate the feeling of touching or gripping an object, while a separate actuator provided vibration. This SMA-based touch feedback was the headline technology behind the glove's CES 2023 Innovation Award. Later hardware describes its haptics in terms of linear resonant actuators and a "Haptic Reactor" module paired with the glove.

The ContactGlove2 refines the same idea. It connects to a PC over a 2.4 GHz wireless dongle, runs for up to about 8.5 hours on a 1,400 mAh battery per glove with a full charge in roughly three hours over USB-C, and works with SteamVR software including VRChat and Resonite. An exoskeleton-style controller module called the Magnetra2 attaches to the glove with magnets to add physical sticks and buttons for hands-free operation, and a developer SDK supports Unity, Unreal Engine, and MotionBuilder.

Products

Product	Year	Type	Notes
HalfDive	2021 (announced)	VR headset	Headset designed for reclined, in-bed use, inspired by Sword Art Online; 1,440 x 1,600 per eye LCD at 90Hz, roughly 134-degree field of view, 4.5 degrees of freedom, optional varifocal lenses; Kickstarter cancelled and refunded in early 2022
ContactGlove	2022 (Kickstarter), 2023	Glove-type VR controller	Finger tracking via bend sensors plus shape memory alloy fingertip haptics; mounts external SteamVR trackers; CES 2023 Innovation Award; priced around 500 US dollars for the pair
ContactGlove2	2024	Glove-type VR controller	Second generation; 2.4 GHz wireless, 1,400 mAh battery, up to ~8.5 hours; works with VRChat and Resonite; pairs with the Magnetra2 module
Magnetra / Magnetra2	2023-2024	Controller module	Exoskeleton module with sticks and buttons that attaches to the ContactGlove with magnets for hands-free operation
ContactTouch	2025	Haptic device	Compact XR haptic unit that recreates sensations such as pressing buttons and gripping objects
ContactSheet	2025	Tracking accessory	Add-on for Meta Quest controllers that adds hand-tracking capability

Reception

Coverage of Diver-X has tended to frame it as an unusually ambitious Japanese startup willing to attempt hardware that larger companies avoid. Road to VR described the original HalfDive as one of the more unusual VR headsets to reach crowdfunding, and noted that its cancellation, with no backer charged, reflected the difficulty a small team faces in manufacturing a niche device at scale. The pivot to the ContactGlove was generally received as a more grounded bet, and outlets including TechCrunch likened the glove to a modern, working version of the Nintendo Power Glove for VR, highlighting its finger tracking and shape memory alloy touch feedback. The CES 2023 Innovation Award and the company's later Pre-Series A funding from corporate and venture investors lent further credibility to its approach to hand interfaces.