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Using HoloLens 2 With Gloves

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If your need to wear gloves for your job, you may have found that some types of gloves don't work with hand tracking. This article outlines the best practices for finding gloves that do work, and offers some examples of gloves that we have tested at Microsoft.

Challenges with Gloves

There are two main challenges when it comes to gloves on HoloLens 2 - infrared light absorption and bagginess. Read on to learn more.

Infrared Light Absorption

Hand tracking relies on a depth camera, which functions by projecting IR light into the scene and timing the reflectance back to the camera. Certain types of glove materials absorb the projected infrared light and therefore don't appear in the depth image, making your hands invisible and not trackable. We find that dark rubbery materials tend to exhibit this problem, and should be avoided. In general, we recommend using gloves that are mid-tone colors or brighter for best results. Note that IR light absorption is a challenge that only applies to users wearing gloves.

Bagginess

Hand tracking operates by finding objects in the scene that look like hands. The larger and baggier the glove, the more it obscures the shape of your hand, which reduces that chance that the algorithm can detect it. In general, we recommend selecting gloves that are as form-fitting as possible for best results.

Glove Examples

To illustrate how different types of gloves perform with hand tracking, we have tested a selection of gloves and included the results below. Please note that these results are for informational purposes only, and not a guarantee of performance. Use these examples to guide your search for your own specific use case, and test thoroughly before deploying.

Nitrile Disposable Gloves

These are thin and tight-fitting gloves, typically made of nitrile or latex, and disposed after each use. We tested several colors, and found that all colors worked well except for black.

White Purple Blue Black
White Disposable Gloves Purple Disposable Gloves Blue Disposable Gloves Black Disposable Gloves
Nitrile Nitrile Nitrile Nitrile
✅Pass ✅Pass ✅ Pass ❌ Fail

General Purpose / Utility Gloves

These are your standard general-purpose utility gloves, typically with light padding, and made of leather or synthetic leather materials. We tested several colors, and found that gloves with large stretches of black material experienced tracking drops on that side of the hand.

Yellow / Black Red / Black Gray / Black Gray / Gray
Yellow Utility Gloves Red Utility Gloves Gray/Black Utility Gloves Gray Utility Gloves
Synthetic Leather Synthetic Leather Synthetic Leather Synthetic Leather
❌ Fail ❌ Fail ❌ Fail ✅ Pass

Cut Resistant Gloves - A1

These are thin, form-fitting utility gloves that provide grip, and a low level of cut protection. They utilize a dipped rubber coating on the palm side, and a flexible material on the back. We found that the black Nylon material caused tracking problems for that side of the hand.

Black / Gray Orange / White
Black/Gray A1 Cut Resistant Gloves Orange/White A1 Cut Resistant Gloves
Polyurethane / Nylon Nitrile / Polyester
❌ Fail ✅ Pass

Cut Resistant Gloves - A3

These are thin, form-fitting utility gloves that provide grip, and a medium level of cut resistance. They utilize a dipped rubber coating on the palm side, and a flexible material on the back. In this set, we found that only the pair with black nitrile material exhibited tracking problems.

Light Blue / Gray Gray / Black Light Gray / Orange Gray / Gray
Blue/Gray A3 Cut Resistant Gloves Gray/Black A3 Cut Resistant Gloves Gray/Orange A3 Cut Resistant Gloves Gray A3 Cut Resistant Gloves
Polyurethane / Nylon Nitrile / HPPE Nitrile / HPPE Polyurethane / HPPE
✅ Pass ❌ Fail ✅ Pass ✅ Pass

Cut Resistant Gloves - A4

These are thin, form-fitting utility gloves that provide grip and higher level of cut resistance. They typically utilize a dipped rubber coating on the palm side, and a flexible material on the back. In this set, we found once again that only the pair with black nitrile material exhibited tracking problems.

Blue / Black White / White Gray / Gray White / Gray
Blue/Black A4 Cut Resistant Gloves White A4 Cut Resistant Gloves Gray A4 Cut Resistant Gloves White/Gray A4 Cut Resistant Gloves
Nitrile / HPPE Polyurethane / HPPE HPPE Polyurethane / TenActiv
❌ Fail ✅ Pass ✅ Pass ✅ Pass

Cut Resistant Gloves - A5

These gloves provide a very high level of cut resistance. We tested a typical pair with a dipped rubber coating on the palm side, and another with more advanced impact protection on the back. Unfortunately we found that this extra bulk leads to tracking issues for that glove.

Gray / Gray Black / Green / Gray
Gray A5 Cut Resistant Gloves Black/Green/Gray A5 Cut Resistant Gloves
Polyurethane / Intercept TPR (Impact Resistant) / HPPE
✅ Pass ❌ Fail

Waterproof, Chemical Resistant Gloves

These gloves are typically on the bulkier side and provide waterproof, chemical resistant protection for various use cases. The increased bagginess creates a more challenging tracking scenario, and we found that only the orange gloves tracked well on HoloLens 2.

Black Orange Impact Yellow Orange
Black Chemical Resistant Gloves Orange Impact Chemical Resistant Gloves Yellow Chemical Resistant Gloves Orange Chemical Resistant Gloves
Neoprene PVC PVC-Nitrile Latex
❌ Fail ❌ Fail ❌ Fail ✅ Pass