Ultraleap Hand-tracking Update Delivers Improved Two-handed Interactions

By
Ben Lang
-
27

The latest version of Ultraleap’s hand-tracking tech is finally available today on Windows for use with the Leap Motion Controller accessory and promises to improve two-handed interactions, speed, and robustness. The release includes a demo experience showcasing how hand-tracking can be used as a primary input for a standalone XR device.

Ultraleap today publicly released ‘Gemini’, the company’s fifth-generation hand-tracking software which was initially made available in a developer preview earlier this year. The improved hand-tracking software has already been deployed to headsets like Varjo’s and been made available for devices based on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon XR2, and now it can be downloaded on Windows to be used with the company’s existing Leap Motion Controller accessory which can be mounted to VR headsets. Support for MacOS and Linux are expected further down the road.

While the Leap Motion Controller is by now quite old, the company has continued to refine the software that underlies it, improving on what is already recognized as some of the best hand-tracking tech available in the industry. More recently, Ultraleap has released improved hand-tracking modules with a wider field-of-view and other improvements, though these aren’t available as a standalone accessory.

Image courtesy Ultraleap

With the Gemini update, Ultraleap says it has improved two-handed interactions, initialization speed, and the robustness of its hand-tracking. Alongside the Windows release of Gemini, the company is also making available an ‘XR Launcher’ demo experience which shows how the hand-tracking tech can be used for a fully functional XR interface.

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Ben Lang
Ben is the world's most senior professional analyst solely dedicated to the XR industry, having founded Road to VR in 2011—a year before the Oculus Kickstarter sparked a resurgence that led to the modern XR landscape. He has authored more than 3,000 articles chronicling the evolution of the XR industry over more than a decade. With that unique perspective, Ben has been consistently recognized as one of the most influential voices in XR, giving keynotes and joining panel and podcast discussions at key industry events. He is a self-described "journalist and analyst, not evangelist."
  • ViRGiN

    Oh cool, more hardware for something that never ever got any developers attention.
    Who needs that, other than Facebook haters, claiming to get something modular for their outdated headsets?

    • Keopsys

      Every time you write something, it’s below the lowest expectations. Loser.

      • ViRGiN

        And everytime you take the bait?
        Holy fuk, are you a pimax user who bought into hand tracking? Or maybe a sore user of Index for which people claimed hand tracking can be done and actually useful?

        Go a step further and just call me an Oculus fanboy, for your own imaginary reasons, and totally not because it is the best system all around.

        • Ben Jacobs

          “Go a step further and just call me an Oculus fanboy, for your own imaginary reasons”

          You don’t seem like an Oculus fan. Or a VR fan for that matter. You seem to crap on any company which isn’t Facebook? (Unless posts you’ve made in the last year has been a product of imagination)

          • ViRGiN

            Then show me a company that isn’t Facebook that does something substantial for VR.

            Tip: there are none. Enjoying what FB does makes instantly everyone a FB fanboy apparently.

          • silvaring

            I hope you get paid in more than Doritos and sugar cola.

          • Marc-André Désilets

            Calm down your emotion ViRGiN.
            I also feel like Facebook is pushing vr like no other companies are. But for other persons, a bigger FOVs and more resolution are more important. For others, base stations give you more freedom of movement and for others the next big thing is full body tracking.

            For my side, making vr accessible and accepted by mass population is the first step so I do agree that FB is taking the right direction. But that doesn’t mean that other companies are not trying interesting things ^^;

            We should stop being on the defensive/offensive side. Everybody can have their opinion without being called “fanboy” on both side and competition in VR is good!

    • Marc-André Désilets

      To be honest let’s remove the “facebook haters” part of your message and I agree with you on that one.

      Segmenting the market with a 3rd party accessory is not a good idea. Maybe you’ll se a couple of interesting tech demo but no “real retail product” will base their software on a hardware that is owned by a minority of user.

      Sega failed with the 32x and the sega cd
      Xbox failed with the kinect
      Nintendo did the same mistake with the 64DD.

    • John Doe

      Found the incel

  • Keopsys

    Great to see almost zero latency hand tracking getting better !

    • ViRGiN

      Every time you write something, it’s below the lowest expectations. Loser.

      • metaphysician67

        Jeezus ViRGiN give your FB fanboy gatekeeping a freaking rest. stop insulting everyone who comments on a product not made by FRL. the comment wasn’t even directed at FB or even any company but on the tech itself, which is pretty cool regardless of who is putting it in devices.

        i’m glad you love your FRL VR so freaking much that you feel the need to belittle anyone and everyone that doesn’t agree with your fanboy gatekeeper views.

        seriously are you like 15 years old and have nothing better to do? i mean anytime posts anything cool about VR or AR and doesn’t mention the greatness of FRL you feel like you have to instantly piss in the pool or somehow – what, you miss out on a good insult shutdown? and yes i’m rising to the bait from the troll

        • ViRGiN

          Perhaps… stop insulting everyone who actually enjoys FB products and laughs at piss poor attemps of everyone else?

          With the company in this article – what has Ultraleap achieved since 2013 – the year DK1 was widely available as first real VR headset? We had hand tracking readily available since then – in various iterations over the year. What is the real use case, other than tracking hands for the sake of tracking them? That’s the whole point. It’s useless technology without developers backing. And there was close to nothing released for it ever, very few businesses use it as well. So who is this product for, other than expecting to be bought by a bigger company?

          • Christian Schildwaechter

            I didn’t explain the whole history of Ultraleap to you in a detailed, calm and friendly way just yesterday, only for you to take a few snippets of what I wrote, turn them on their head and asks the questions I already answered in detail again as a form of attack.

            https://www.roadtovr.com/pimax-reality-12k-qled-announcement-release-date-price-specs/#comment-5586815554

          • metaphysician67

            i believe i have said (numerous times) that it’s fine with me if you’re okay with your FB/Meta/whatever product. what i (and others) don’t like is your near constant belittling and insulting of anyone who doesn’t agree that FB has all the best technology hardware and products (this what you term ‘laughs at piss-poor attempts of everyone else’). that is called gatekeeping – you are preventing anyone discussing anything other than the product you (and others) find to be the best.

            you can argue on the merits of the hardware or technology all you want – i’m fine with all that, and you do make some good points. but you mostly use that as a cudgel to verbally personally insult or demean those people for their ‘piss poor’ choices – aka choices that you don’t agree with. that goes over the line for me.

            you’ll notice how i’m not commenting on the latest pro FB/Meta/whatever articles with my opinions. in those cases i understand my negative views against a large monopoly might not go over well. so i don’t air them and i certainly don’t insult anyone who likes them, as long as they weren’t insulting others first.

            so you are here on this specific thread not so much to present a considered alternative point of view but more specifically (or at least equally) to harass and make fun of anyone who doesn’t agree that FB/Meta/whatever is the best and that any other technology isn’t worth anything. that is the very definition of fanboy gatekeeping. and i will call you out on it.

          • Marc-André Désilets

            FB is not making headset anymore, it’s Meta now! :P

        • James Cobalt

          May I suggest… https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/47d650a4836ab5ad4e6d209850ac92693024af7e814b6e01099011c16ed746bf.png

          Did it like 6+ months ago. The kid is very obviously suffering from something (OCPD? That’s the most common one but who knows – something psychological is going on). Hopefully he grows out of it.

          Honestly surprised RtVR hasn’t banned him. He’s such a negative force and makes commenting and even just reading comments painful.

          • metaphysician67

            yeah – i would normally just block him but he’s a malign enough influence that he bullies a lot of folks who are just curious about other non-FB products. so i do occasionally push back against him and CaryMGVR as well.

  • This is pretty impressive. Looks ahead of Facebook’s rudimentary handtracking on the Quest 2. Hopefully Facebook can improve handtracking with their new headsets. Tomorrow will be interesting…

  • Davo

    ViRGiN, did you find it yet ?

  • Ad

    Devs can get the newer modules standalone, and Pimax sells them. But the Lynx will just use the software with its own cameras.

  • silvaring

    Anyone got juicy info they want to share about this tech being rolled out into future WRM headsets?

    • What’s a worm headset?

      • silvaring

        Obv a typo

  • Still looks like after all these years, tracking field of view is still UltraLeap’s biggest problem. They just go the tiniest bit out of frame and BAM the hand is gone

  • Marc-André Désilets

    This tech is more than 8 years old. I was using it on my DK1 a loooooong time ago.

  • I have just tried it and reviewed it on my blog. If you use the new camera with Gemini, it’s impressive. Not perfect to substitute controllers, but a lot usable