Leap Motion, the optical hand-tracking firm, was acquired by Bristol, UK-based haptics company Ultrahaptics earlier this year. Now, Ultrahaptics is relaunching under a new name created to reflect its shared heritage: Ultraleap.

Before the acquisition of Leap Motion and the subsequent rebranding, Ultrahaptics was best known for its mid-air haptic technology which uses ultrasound to project tactile sensations onto users’ hands.

Leap Motion, known for its eponymous optical hand-tracking module and underlying software, was acquired by the company for a reported $30 million back in May. Prior to its acquisition, Leap Motion created an open-source AR headset, Project North Star.

Image courtesy Leap Motion

 

According to a press statement provided to Road to VR, both the Ultrahaptics and Leap Motion names will continue to be maintained as trademarks for existing products, however all new software and hardware launches will fall under the Ultraleap name.

“Rebranding isn’t a decision we’ve taken lightly. We’re immensely proud of what our companies have achieved,” explains Ultraleap CEO Steve Cliffe. “We’re also very excited for what’s to come. Our new name and brand reflects our ambitions in this new world, now and for the future.”

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The company was, and still is, focused on using its technology across a variety of industries such as automotive, advertising, AR/VR, and simulation & training.

Notably, Ultraleap has licensed its technology to industry pros such as The Void’s Star Wars: Secrets of the Empire at Disney, and has been showcased in concept cars developed by Harman, and Bosch.

The news of the rebranding was first reported by Business Leader.

Thanks to Antony Vitillo of VR/AR blog Skarred Ghost for pointing us to the news.

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Scott Hayden
Well before the first modern XR products hit the market, Scott recognized the potential of the technology and set out to understand and document its growth. He has been professionally reporting on the space for nearly a decade as Editor at Road to VR, authoring more than 4,000 articles on the topic. Scott brings that seasoned insight to his reporting from major industry events across the globe.
  • JesuSaveSouls

    Leap motion was and is amazing technology that needs no controllers but only your own hands.I was really hoping oculus would of bought or partnered with them to innovate all motion control technology without needing controllers for any games.Jesusavesouls !

    • Schadows

      It is very good on paper, but the lack of feedback makes the tech less useful than it looks.

      In most games, you’re holding something with your hands (guns, sword, racket, stick, etc.) and/or are squeezing your hands around objects from time to time (door handle, object you’re picking, etc.).

      For sure, Leap Motion has it’s use, but I still think that most of the time, it feels better to have something in your hand.

      • JesuSaveSouls

        I agree but it would be cool if it gets more advanced.

      • Foreign Devil

        maybe that is where the haptics company will come into play. Giving you tactile feedback

        • Charles

          But there’s only so much you can do with ultrasound-based haptic feedback, even if it’s perfected. Because it can’t provide resistance – you can’t rest your fingers on virtual controller buttons, or grip a virtual sword. At best, you could feel where these things are supposed to be and carefully hold your fingers there.

          • Mei Ling

            Indeed. Ultrasound shouldn’t be used as the primary haptic solution due to the lack of force feedback. Instead companies should focus on using the technology as an enhancement feature to a physically wearable device which enables the primary haptic solution. What this may be is still as of yet unknown although I don’t believe ultrasound will play a significant role in haptics for VR in the next decade and beyond simply because there are better solutions out there.

      • Matthew Wallace

        Agreed — always has seemed less than the sum of its parts.

  • lynx

    Google killed this technology a week ago with their open sourced cross platform framework mediapipe. It does hand tracking with a single camera. Do you want to pay $100 for something you can have for free? Further, now you don’t need specialized hardware, ever VR and AR device with a camera should have the ability to do hand tracking. Whether or not the a game or application is using your hands or the controllers can be purely contextual to what you are doing. I may want to bring real objects into the XR world in which case I need to see my hands.

    • Have you tried Mediapipe? I did, and posted a youtube video about it. It is not comparable in tracking with Leap Motion yet

      • lynx

        Did you use the handtrackinggpu3d.apk? I saw your video and think removing the flicker should be easy. I’m going to try it out however you should be able to solve the problem with a weighted moving average of the points generated per each frame. That should fix the flickering and wiggling of the hand.

        • asdfasdfasdf

          yeah but averaging means less definition and more cumbersome general movement.

  • I am very curious to see what this company will offer in the future. And I also hope that Ultraleap will start selling the Leap Motion v2…

  • asdfasdfasdf

    he said the future not the past…..

    • Immersive_Computing

      Did you get to experience “Secrets of the Empire” at The Void? The hand tracking was excellent. V2 is obviously better but V1 wasn’t shabby either. I’ve also used it on Vive Pro and Rift CV1 at LBE and it was generally good.

  • Matias Brunacci

    Can’t wait for the android version to re-build my experience into the Quest.

    https://www.matiasbrunacci.com/img/virtualshamanismgif.gif

  • Steven Schkolne

    Ultraleap sounds a little too much like Magic Leap for my tastes. Yeah yeah I know Leap Motion was first…

  • Can they finally get around to selling some of this tech for integration into the Quest? That’s 4 cameras, just waiting for some sweet-sweet hand tracking fun!