(cache) Leap Motion Goes Mobile

Working in Silicon Valley, I’ve come to realize that everything that seems futuristic was actually on the drawing board a startling number of years in the past. Technology is like a flash in the darkness – long nights building towards an instant when suddenly everything is different. That’s why I think all of us work in technology, and why we at Leap Motion are always very much living in the future.

I come from the future now to tell you a bit about what’s just over the horizon. Today I’m going to be talking about the Leap Motion Mobile Platform. This is a combination of software and hardware we’ve made specifically for untethered, battery-powered virtual and augmented reality devices, many of which will run off the same types of processors already used in smartphones around the globe.

The challenges to build a tracking platform in this space have been immense. We needed to build a whole new Leap Motion sensor with higher performance and much lower power. We needed to make the most sophisticated hand tracking software in the world run at nearly 10 times the speed all while making it smoother and more accurate than ever before.

At the same time, we wanted to address the biggest request from the VR community, which is field of view. While our PC peripheral remains unrivaled at 140×120 degrees, we’ve found in virtual reality there is reason to go even further. So we’ve built our next-generation system with the absolute maximum field of view that a single sensor can support on a VR headset, which is 180×180 degrees.

Last, we’ve built a reference system on top of the Gear VR that we’re shipping to headset makers around the world to show how this all comes together into a single cohesive product. Starting this month, we’ll be demoing this system at major VR events with an enhanced version of our Interaction Engine and flagship Blocks demo.

This is the beginning of an important shift towards mobile and ubiquitous wearable displays that will eventually be as easy and casual to use as a pair of glasses. The ultimate result of which will be the merging of our digital and physical realities.

David Holz / David is the co-founder and chief technology officer at Leap Motion.

GoTouchVR

It is difficult to express how much we appreciate this news. Go guys, do it, and we will implement the illusion of touching a virtual object with it!
TonyVT SkarredGhost

This is a super news! Congrats guys! Leap with Mobile headset will be huge, especially if vendors will start integrating it built-in in the headsets.
Field of view is cool, but how about maximum distance?
- Natanael L
  
  Also, what’s the resolution / precision at a distance. As long as it is sub-centimeter at an arm’s length it isn’t too bad, but stuff like virtual instruments would do better with sub-millimeter
Natanael L

Given that one sometimes want to make gestures outside one’s own field of view, will you try to address synchronizing multiple sensors (including stationary ones), so that people can move arbitrarily, even literally with flailing arms, and get everything registered by the sensors?
boulabiar

When I read the title “mobile” I thought it will be possible to use it standalone and route events to a consuming app.
Tying it to VR won’t help exploring new forms of use of the Leap Motion
- Paolo Leoncini
  
  That’s nice, and don’t even close the door to VR. I’m experimenting with a small Win10 worn computer streaming hand data to a PC where the VR app actually runs, aiming at a wireless, PC-based, immersive setup.
  So, you LM wizards could consider to extend such new mobile setup with the possibility to plug a (sort of) wi-fi dongle to use it independently of the smart VR headset you probably targeted it at.
ysk8

It sounds so great, and it is the natural evolution for the Leap Motion right now! The challenges is huge, more related to power consumption, but all is being evolve too! I will be waiting for… more news and for it
TonyVT SkarredGhost

And… what about Daydream integration?
Luis F Oliveira

This sounds great! I love you guys!
Andrea S

Congratulations! I was just talking about this on LinkedIn. I was hoping your platform would
merge with the VR world. This is awesome!
Dan

Questions:
-Now that this one consumes less will it be possible to use multiple devices?
-Do we have color on this one? like dragonfly? please say yes 😀
-Will a new dongle available for smartphone testing? or only on HMD mode?
-Should we expect positional tracking with this headset like MS one?
-Will it be VR only? no AR?
-Will it work under the same SDK?
-Will this new embeded HW have its own CPU? or it will depend on the external HW? like the current one?
Augure

Thanks for doing the job Google, Apple, Microsoft, Samsung, Facebook, HTC etc…won’t do…for 4 years straight now!

And also you didn’t settle for “yeah but it doesn’t work well yet”, you release a real usable product that just keep on getting updated, iterated and better. Thanks for that.

Leap Motion Goes Mobile

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