The “Leonardo da Vinci” National Museum of Science and Technology in Milan is launching The Touch, a new escape game that combines science, storytelling and immersive technologies-a game that museum visitors can experience with virtual reality. The experience will be available from Saturday, September 20, and pre-purchased from September 4 on the Fever platform. This is the first project in Italy to make TouchDIVER Pro haptic feedback gloves, developed by the start-up WEART, accessible to the general public. Worn in combination with a Meta Quest 3 VR visor, they allow visitors to feel the resistance, texture and temperature of digital objects, transforming virtual exploration into a realistic sensory experience.
The story is set in 2040, during a mission to Mars. Four participants take on the role of a crew searching for traces of primitive life in the Jezero crater. One player, immersed in the virtual world thanks to gloves and a visor, collects rock samples and crucial data; the other three, with manuals and physical materials to analyze, collaborate remotely to interpret clues and solve technical problems aboard the rover. The challenge lasts 30 minutes: only with communication and coordination can the crew analyze samples, overcome malfunctions and return to Earth with decisive evidence.
The experience is a collaboration between the Museum, WEART and Keiron Interactive, with scientific advice from planetary geologist Nicola Mari and supervision by Luca Reduzzi, curator of the Space area. The scenarios and digital tools are modeled after real prototypes and equipment, such as the rover inspired by NASA’s lunar vehicle for the Artemis program and the mobile geological analysis laboratories. The plot moves between reality and imagination: the Martian base, built from local materials by 3D printing, is the starting point of a journey that weaves scientific accuracy and narrative suggestion.
At the heart of the project is haptic technology. TouchDIVER Pro gloves have six actuation points-one for each finger plus the palm-and multimodal feedback that returns the physical sensation of virtual objects. The Meta Quest 3 viewer enables movement in a free 3x3-meter space with hand tracking without a controller, increasing immersiveness.
The Touch is designed for groups of two to four players, with a total cost of 85 euros per group. The experience lasts one hour, including 30 minutes of actual play, and is recommended for ages 16 and up. It is available in Italian and English.
The project is part of the Museum of Milan’s strategy to make science accessible through innovative tools. The use of play as a form of mediation makes it possible to attract diverse audiences and address complex issues, such as the search for life on Mars, in a participatory dimension.
“It’s been more than 40 years since virtual reality pioneer Jaron Lanier designed the first data globes in the labs of VPL Research, in Silicon Valley,” says Luca Roncella, head of Gaming & Digital Interactivity at the Museum. "They cost millions, were bulky and slow. Today that technological dream is finally within everyone’s reach. WEART’s TouchDiver Pro gloves really allow you to perceive virtual objects as if they were real. With The Touch we wanted to not only literally put a revolutionary technology in people’s hands, but to offer a new way of imagining the future of cultural experience. A technology that not only changes how we will see the virtual world, but how we will touch it, design it, inhabit it. Its potential extends far beyond entertainment: from education to sensory rehabilitation, from design to the inclusion of new forms of access and experience. Our challenge has been to make this accessible, engaging, and surprising. The result is something that speaks to everyone, even those who don’t expect to enter the future. And it does so in the most spontaneous and socializing way we know of to experience the world: through play."
"We are delighted that haptic technology is coming to the public through The Touch, in a context that combines education and entertainment," comments Guido Gioioso, CEO and co-founder of WEART. “Our TouchDIVER Pro gloves transform the virtual world into a tangible experience, making learning more complete and engaging. Collaborating with the National Museum of Science and Technology has allowed us to show the potential of haptics in creating immersive and inspiring edutainment experiences.”
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| At the Museum of Science in Milan comes The Touch: the escape game that is played by touching Mars |
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