Leap Motion Makes Their 3D Hand Tracking Software Even Better

 Computer Interfaces  

Leap Motion’s motion-tracking software just got much better. The company has released Version 2 of their software to developers in a public beta. The update allows developers to create applications that can make use of very subtle finger and joint movements.

Motion tracker maker Leap Motion has released their free Version 2 software to developers in a public beta. The update is available to developers now, and does not require any new hardware to implement.

The company wants developers to be the first to work with V2 before the new version receives its consumer release.

"V2 tracking is a critical step forward on this path: it makes it much easier for developers to build transformative applications that are consistent with this vision."

According to the Leap Motion blog, this is the first of several major updates to come before the consumer release. The significance of the update is that the new version will make it possible for developers to leverage more intricate tracking capabilities, for building greater content.

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According to the post, V2 retains the speed and positional accuracy found in V1, but the software also now tracks the actual joints and bones inside each of the user’s fingers. This leads to some immediate benefits over V1:

• -Finger and hand labels – every finger, hand, and joint now has anatomical labels like ‘pinky’, ‘left hand’, and ‘proximal phalanges’
• -Occlusion robustness – fingers are tracked even when they’re not seen by the controller, as might happen if you turned your hands completely vertically or intertwined the fingers of your left and right hands
• -Massively improved resistance to ambient infrared light – sunlight, powerful halogens, etc.
• -Much more granular data for developers about the user’s hands and fingers – 27 dimensions per hand, in addition to special parameters like grab/pinch APIs

Leap Motion claims the new version will allow users to reach into the screen and interact with applications in the same way we interact with the physical world every day.

This means taking things like sculpting a lump of clay, snapping together building blocks, or learning to play an instrument – the types of actions 99% of people just won’t or can’t do on a computer with traditional input devices like a mouse and keyboard. For instance, Elon Musk and his team at SpaceX have used Leap Motion to build a Tony Stark-inspired CAD interface. They system potentially allows instantly accessibility to anyone who knows how to interact with interfaces that mimic interactions they use with their hands in the real world.

Of course, this was the promise of the Leap Motion system when it was first introduced.  The new update looks to overcome some of the glitches and bugs that the initial release did not fully account for. With this beta release to developers, the company hopes to release a consumer version that really works as promised.



SOURCE  Leap Motion

By 33rd Square

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