MIT engineers have created a 'second skin' that could one day track whole bodies in VR

Engineers at MIT have developed a sheet full of optical fibres that can digitally reconstruct its own shape even as it is flexed and folded, and the team reckons it could be fashioned into a garment for accurately mirroring real-world movements in a game. The algorithm reconstructs the sheet's movement with a margin of error of less than 0.4 centimeters, compared with around 1 to 2 centimeters for existing rigid-sensor designs. The team plans to trim down the prototype, whose optical fibres currently measure 1 millimetre thick, and says the tech could also aid patients undergoing physical therapy.