Now its creator, Leap Motion, is pursuing a more promising market – virtual reality – with its “Orion” hand tracking development software. It’s part hardware, part software, built from the ground up to tackle the unique challenges of hand tracking for VR.
Advertisement
According to LeapMotion, the platform boasts improved latency, longer range and faster action recognition, as well as coping with variable ambient light and multiple physical objects. That said, it does have its limitations with the biggest one being your hands have to be visible to you in order to use them in the virtual world – so you can’t blindly reach off to the side and expect something to happen in the VR experience.
“I’m not just being shown a digital space, I am actually in a digital space”, Leap Motion co-founder David Holz told AFP while providing a demonstration of Orion.
“Because this shift is so stark, we’re making Orion software available on our peripheral starting today so developers can begin exploring a totally new generation of experiences in virtual reality”. The new sensor uses infrared technology to detect the motion of users’ hands, down to the shape of their palm and the exact position of all 10 fingers. Motion tracking is also faster, smoother and more sensitive, to boot.
And Leap Motion hopes to lead the way on that front, too. Dubbed Orion, the program aims to improve natural hand and finger input in simulated scenarios. A software Beta is going live for developers today so that they can try these new features for themselves, while the company is working with OEMs to integrate its new hardware with HMDs.
If you don’t remember, Leap Motion made a device a while back that allows you to use your hands to control your computer.
Advertisement
Leap Motion’s mission is to remove the barriers between people and technology.
