HaptX
| HaptX | |
|---|---|
| |
| Information | |
| Type | Brand of 1HMX (formerly independent company) |
| Industry | Haptic technology, Virtual reality, Robotics |
| Founded | 2012 (as AxonVR) |
| Founder | Jake Rubin, Robert Crockett |
| Headquarters | Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, United States (1HMX); San Luis Obispo, California |
| Notable Personnel | Jake Rubin (Founder; President of Immersive Technologies at 1HMX) |
| Products | HaptX Gloves (DK1, DK2, Gloves G1) |
| Parent | 1HMX (formerly AIS Global / Advanced Input Systems) |
| Website | https://haptx.com |
HaptX is an American haptic technology developer that builds force-feedback gloves using a patented microfluidic actuator system to simulate the sense of touch in virtual reality and in robot teleoperation. Its main products are the HaptX Gloves G1 and the earlier development kits DK1 and DK2, which are aimed at enterprise, industrial, healthcare, and government users rather than consumers.[1][2]
The company was founded in 2012 by Jake Rubin and Dr. Robert Crockett under the name AxonVR Corporation and renamed HaptX in 2017.[3][2] Its haptic gloves physically displace the skin to reproduce the texture, shape, and movement of a touched object, combining tactile feedback with a force-feedback exoskeleton that resists hand motion.[3][2] In August 2025 HaptX became a product brand of 1HMX, the company formed when its longtime manufacturing partner AIS Global (Advanced Input Systems) rebranded; Rubin continued as President of Immersive Technologies at 1HMX.[4]
History
AxonVR and the rename to HaptX
Jake Rubin and Dr. Robert Crockett founded the company in 2012 as AxonVR Corporation.[3][2] On November 20, 2017 the company announced that it had changed its name to HaptX Inc. and unveiled its first haptic glove. At that point HaptX had raised over 9 million US dollars and employed 32 people, with offices in Seattle, Washington and San Luis Obispo, California.[3][2] The first glove delivered over 100 points of high-displacement tactile feedback, up to five pounds of resistance per finger, and sub-millimeter finger tracking, and HaptX positioned it for virtual training in healthcare, defense, and retail, for automotive design, and for location-based entertainment.[3][2]
HaptX Gloves DK2
On January 28, 2021 HaptX launched the HaptX Gloves DK2, a second development kit available for direct purchase rather than only on loan. The DK2 provided up to 40 pounds of resistance per hand, shrank the finger-tracking hardware into a small board built into each glove, and cut the weight of the earlier air controller from about 180 pounds.[5] The air controller could be mounted on a user's back for a backpack configuration, enabling room-scale VR use, and the system was priced in the tens of thousands of dollars per unit and aimed at enterprise customers in fields such as military, medical, and automotive.[5] The first DK2 production run sold out within six months.[6]
HaptX Gloves G1
HaptX announced the HaptX Gloves G1 on October 25, 2022 as a smaller, lighter, and far cheaper system intended for scalable deployment by businesses. Each glove uses more than 130 microfluidic actuators (135 per hand) that displace the skin, plus a force-feedback mechanism delivering up to eight pounds of force per digit, or 40 pounds per hand, with 30 degrees of freedom of sub-millimeter finger tracking.[7][8] A separate Airpack unit generates and regulates the compressed air; in its mobile form it weighs about 17 pounds (7.7 kg), connects over 802.11ac Wi-Fi, and runs for around three hours on a charge without external air or power.[7][9] Each glove weighs about one pound and comes in four adult sizes.[7]
The G1 was priced at 5,495 US dollars per pair, or 4,500 US dollars per pair when buying a four-size bundle, with the Airpack and software development kit offered on a subscription starting at 495 US dollars per month.[9][10] Shipments were originally planned for the third quarter of 2023; HaptX began North American deliveries on June 18, 2024, with European and Asian shipments to follow later that year, and said it had taken tens of millions of dollars of pre-orders from enterprise, industrial, healthcare, and government teams.[1][9]
Move under 1HMX
HaptX worked closely with Advanced Input Systems, a manufacturing group that led its 2022 funding round, and the relationship deepened over the following years.[4] On August 20, 2025 AIS Global announced that it had rebranded as 1HMX, a company headquartered in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho and led by chief executive Joe Baddeley. HaptX became one of several product brands kept within the 1HMX portfolio, alongside Advanced Input Systems, Gamesman, Medigenic, Duraswitch, and Touch International.[4] Jake Rubin took the title of President of Immersive Technologies at 1HMX, continuing development and commercialization of the HaptX Gloves G1.[11]
Technology
HaptX gloves use microfluidic skin-displacement haptics. A flexible textile contains a dense array of small chambers, or actuators, that fill with pressurized fluid and push against the skin so that the hand feels the texture, shape, and motion of a virtual object, rather than the buzz of a vibration motor.[2][7] The company describes this as physically displacing the skin the same way a real object would when touched.[3] Layered over the tactile array is a force-feedback exoskeleton with tendon-like structures that resist finger and hand movement, so a user can feel the stiffness and resistance of a grasped object as well as its surface.[2][5]
On the Gloves G1 the air is supplied and regulated by the Airpack, which uses nearly 150 pressure-regulated channels and can inflate an actuator in under 30 milliseconds.[8] The gloves include built-in finger tracking with sub-millimeter precision and 30 degrees of freedom per hand, and the system reports no perceivable latency and no occlusion.[8] Haptic effects are authored through plug-ins for Unreal Engine and Unity and a low-level C++ API that is compatible with the Robot Operating System (ROS), and the gloves support SteamVR.[8][7]
Products
| Product | Year | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| HaptX Glove (DK1) | 2017 | First glove, announced with the AxonVR-to-HaptX rename; over 100 points of tactile feedback, up to 5 lb of resistance per finger, sub-millimeter tracking[3][2] |
| HaptX Gloves DK2 | 2021 | Second development kit; up to 40 lb of resistance per hand, finger tracking built into the glove, backpack mode for room-scale use; available for direct purchase[5] |
| HaptX Gloves G1 | Announced 2022, shipping from 2024 | Smaller, lighter production system; 135 microfluidic actuators per hand, up to 40 lb of force per hand, four sizes, Airpack control unit; 5,495 US dollars per pair plus subscription[7][9][1] |
VR, AR and robotics use
HaptX targets enterprise and industrial users who need realistic touch for enterprise VR applications such as workforce training, simulation, and three-dimensional design, including in healthcare, automotive, defense, and government.[2][1] Because the gloves provide force and tactile feedback that mainstream headset controllers do not, they are also used in robot teleoperation: an operator wearing the gloves and a VR headset can manipulate a remote robot's hands and feel the contact and texture of handled objects.[7][11] The humanoid-robot developer Sanctuary AI selected HaptX Gloves as its teleoperation hardware so that human pilots could feel the objects their Phoenix robot handled, generating richer demonstration data for the company's models.[12]
In November 2025, 1HMX introduced Nexus NX1, a full-body teleoperation and motion-capture system that bundles the HaptX Gloves G1 for tactile and force feedback with the Virtuix Omni One omni-directional treadmill and Freeaim's motorized robotic shoes, providing 72 degrees of freedom of body and hand tracking for humanoid robotics, embodied AI, and VR training.[11][13] Nexus NX1 was opened for pre-order with shipments expected to begin in the second quarter of 2026.[13]
Funding
By the time of the 2017 rename to HaptX, the company had raised over 9 million US dollars.[3] On July 22, 2021 HaptX announced a 12 million US dollar Series A-1 round from existing investors including Verizon Ventures, Mason Avenue Investments, Taylor Frigon Capital Partners, and Upheaval Investments, bringing total capital raised to about 31 million US dollars, and it opened a 15,000 square-foot headquarters in Redmond, Washington while expanding its San Luis Obispo office.[6][14] In 2022 the company announced a 23 million US dollar strategic funding round led by AIS Global and Crescent Cove Advisors, with participation from Verizon Ventures, Mason Avenue Investments, and Taylor Frigon Capital Partners, to commercialize the Gloves G1.[15]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 "HaptX Begins North American Shipments of HaptX Gloves G1, World's Most Realistic Touch Feedback System". June 18, 2024. https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/haptx-begins-north-american-shipments-of-haptx-gloves-g1-worlds-most-realistic-touch-feedback-system-302175142.html.
- ↑ 2.00 2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 2.08 2.09 "HaptX Inc. Reveals New Haptic Glove for Virtual Reality". November 20, 2017. https://spectrum.ieee.org/haptx-inc-reveals-new-haptic-glove-for-virtual-reality.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 3.7 "AxonVR is Now HaptX, Announces First Haptic Gloves to Deliver Realistic Touch in Virtual Reality". November 20, 2017. https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/axonvr-is-now-haptx-announces-first-haptic-gloves-to-deliver-realistic-touch-in-virtual-reality-300559562.html.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 "AIS Global Announces Rebrand as 1HMX". August 20, 2025. https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/ais-global-announces-rebrand-as-1hmx-302534537.html.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 "HaptX Launches New & Improved DK2 Haptic VR Gloves for Enterprise". January 28, 2021. https://www.roadtovr.com/haptx-dk2-vr-glove-launch/.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 "Haptic VR Glove Company HaptX Raises $12 Million in New Funding". July 22, 2021. https://www.roadtovr.com/haptic-vr-glove-company-haptx-raises-12-million-in-new-funding/.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 7.5 7.6 "HaptX Gloves G1 bring a sense of touch to the virtual workplace". October 25, 2022. https://newatlas.com/vr/haptx-gloves-g1-haptic-enterprise/.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 "HaptX Announces Industry's Most Advanced Haptic Gloves". October 2022. https://magneticsmag.com/haptx-announces-industrys-most-advanced-haptic-gloves/.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 "HaptX's Latest Haptic Gloves Are Smaller and Cheaper, But Still Bulky and Expensive". October 25, 2022. https://www.roadtovr.com/haptx-haptic-gloves-g1-price-release-date/.
- ↑ "New Haptic G1 Gloves From HaptX Ship Late 2023, $5,500 Per Pair". October 25, 2022. https://www.uploadvr.com/haptx-gloves-g1-price-shipping/.
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 "1HMX introduces Nexus NX1 for full-body motion capture, teleoperation". November 18, 2025. https://www.therobotreport.com/1hmx-introduces-nexus-nx1-for-full-body-motion-capture-teleoperation/.
- ↑ "Use Cases - Robotics". https://haptx.com/use-cases-robotics/.
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 "1HMX Launches Nexus NX1 Turnkey System for Robotic Teleoperation". November 18, 2025. https://www.auganix.org/xr-news-robotic-teleoperation-nexus-nx1/.
- ↑ "HaptX Raises $12M in Growth Funding, Opens New Seattle-area HQ". July 20, 2021. https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/haptx-raises-12m-in-growth-funding-opens-new-seattle-area-hq-301337346.html.
- ↑ "HaptX closes $23 million strategic funding round led by AIS Global and Crescent Cove Advisors". 2022. https://haptx.com/haptx-closes-23-million-strategic-funding-round-led-by-ais-global-and-crescent-cove-advisors/.