You’ve felt raindrops in a storm, but imagine feeling the air on your face as you parachute out of the back of a plane in virtual reality (VR). By replicating the sensations our bodies experience in the physical world, a new wearable promises to make the realm of VR more realistic.

Actronika has banked on its years of experience in haptics to create a vest-like wearable that allows gamers to feel real sensations in virtual worlds. The company claims to do this by using a souped-up version of a well-known haptic mechanism that it calls "high-definition vibrotactile haptics."

"When we touch an object, vibrations are transmitted in our body and we can understand the nature of the surface or object we are interacting with," Actronika's Communications Manager, Marina Crifar, explained in an email to Lifewire. "Vibrotactile haptics consists of reproducing these vibrations created during an interaction so that our somatosensory system interprets them and generates a coherent tactile illusion. This way, Skinetic users can feel real sensations."

According to HaptX, vibrotactile feedback devices, which help users sense sound, are by far the most widespread class of commercial haptic devices. Examples of rudimentary vibrotactile feedback include the hum of a cell phone and the rumble of a game controller, while the Gloveone and Manus represent the next generation of vibrotactile feedback wearables.