The KOR-FX Gaming Vest Could Take VR to the Next Level - Article

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Virtual reality has made itself a very real presence in the video game industry in the last few years, with the highly visible Oculus VR on the forefront of many gamers’ minds (not to mention Facebook, who bought the company for $2 billion earlier this year), as well as Sony’s Project Morpheus headset for the PS4. For bringing your eyes and ears into the game, these headsets have proven phenomenal for immersing players into world of the games that they play.  

But those are just two of our senses, and all of them must be engaged for true immersion to be realized. Enter the KOR-FX Gaming Vest, an electronic vest that straps to your chest, and converts your game's audio signals into physical vibrational feedback. In a sense, the KOR-FX Gaming Vest provides cues to your body to make it feel like you are physically in the world of the game. I had a chance to check out the Gaming Vest on the floor at this year’s E3, and while they still have a bit of a ways to go, I walked away extremely impressed with the technology as well as the promise of what it can bring to VR in gaming. 

For my time with the vest, I sat down with the PS4 version of Call of Duty: Ghosts, and the vest immediately started to work. My demo began with one of the game’s stealth sections, silently moving through the woods. Sound cues represented themselves in the vest as accurate, precise vibrations on my chest that let my body know exactly the direction where the sound was coming from. Working in tandem with a surround sound system, the KOR-FX gaming vest can potentially give players positional awareness of both themselves and enemies that is otherwise not present normally while playing games. I’d love to get a chance to put the vest to the test in competitive multiplayer, or see how it fares in more tense, survival-horror experiences such as Silent Hill or The Last of Us. 

However, the Gaming Vest’s greatest strength perhaps also exposes a weakness. The Gaming Vest works by plugging itself into your source’s audio-out port. As a result, the Gaming Vest theoretically works with all games, not having to worry about compatibility issues or not working with drivers. However, the downside of this is that the Gaming Vest is seemingly only as effective as a game’s sound design.

Indeed, as Call of Duty: Ghosts opened up to larger, more explosive firefights, my situational awareness diminished in the face of hectic, random vibrations.  For example, as Call of Duty: Ghosts does not provide notable audio cues for being hit by enemy fire, the vest did not give me unique feedback as my character took damage. The vest’s hectic vibration to the skirmish was still cool and immersive on its own, but the technology’s sole reliance on audio files for its feedback could prove to be a detriment. That said, the vest allows users to change the settings and adjust them for different games, so perhaps this will resolve that issue.  

I am excited for the types of new experiences the KOR-FX Gaming Vest has to offer, and soon you could be too, as yesterday KOR-FX launched a Kickstarter for the Gaming Vest,  - which you can find here - having already raised over a third of the $75,000 goal within 24 hours. When used in tandem with Oculus Rift, Project Morpheus, or any of the other emerging VR technologies, I’m curious to see if the KOR-FX Gaming Vest can truly take Virtual Reality to the next level. 

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