Leap Motion Straps Their Sensor To A VR Headset and the Implications Will Blow Your Mind

 Virtual Reality  

Leap Motion has announced a virtual reality headset developer mount and a new API that together promises to take VR out of the realm of science fiction.

Since announcing their version of a motion sensor that provided higher fidelity than the Microsoft Kinect, and other devices, Leap Motion has been pushing the technology envelope.

Now, instead of using their sensor in front of a computer to track your hand and fingers, the team at Leap Motion have incorporated the device into a virtual reality headset to provide augmented views of your hands while in a VR environment.

"There are real implications for this in medicine, health and certain types of businesses."

The API feeds raw infrared imagery straight from the sensors to the controller on the headset, giving users a real time view of the environment. With the sensors' capabilities, combined with Leap Motion's hand tracking software, the experience allowed for means that old fashioned VR gloves are not needed.  All you need are your hands.

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According to the company's press release written by founder and CTO David Holz,

One of the most exciting things to us about virtual reality is that our technology can be more than just your hands – it can be your eyes as well. This builds off the release of a new API which opens up raw infrared imagery straight from our sensors. When mounted directly onto a head-worn display, these images become stereoscopic windows into the world around you. What it sees, you see.

According to Leap Motion, virtual reality should feel as smooth and seamless as the real world and with the Leap Motion control, it feels instantaneous.

Along with virtual reality applications like gaming, Leap Motion has put the challenge out to developers to use the Leap Motion VR system to develop night vision applications. A project the company also announced codenamed “Dragonfly,” is designed to be embedded by virtual reality component makers and will possesses "greater-than-HD image resolution, color and infrared imagery, and a significantly larger field of view."

Developers won't have to haul out the duct tape to start working on applications either. To help their community explore this paradigm, Leap Motion is releasing a VR Developer Mount along with a new software development kit (SDK). The kit will be available from the company's online store for $19.99 US and allows developers to easily and consistently attach and remove the Leap Motion Controller from a VR headset such as the Oculus Rift.

It's not just gamers who will benefit from the advances in the VR industry such as Leap's new API.

"This type of imaging will probably go further than gaming," Susan Schreiner, an analyst at C4 Trends, told TechNewsWorld. "There are real implications for this in medicine, health and certain types of businesses."




SOURCE  Leap Motion

By 33rd Square

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