Introducing Orion: Next-Generation Hand Tracking for VR

[davidbollman]

will future hardware have better tracking?

Will there be a separate purchase option for those that just want to purchase an upgraded leap module if there is better underlying hardware?

I likely know the answer to this one, but I think it would further improve tracking and be potentially possible.
Will it be possible to connect 2 leap motions for even better tracking (potentially at different vantage points to further prevent possible finger tracking blockage or to increase the range of tracking? ie 2 vertically on the forward edgesa headset with them slightly angled out from each other?

I'm just downloading the new orion drivers and pulled out the leap motion I bought many a year ago now and hung it up then due to poor tracking issues. Looking forward to giving it a whirl

[davidbollman]

alright I just tried it, and I have to say it is much improved from where it was previously! (I'm estimating about 4 years ago). I would say it is now in a state with the original hardware where I would have continued down the vr path with it back then in this state. Having said that it is very far from complete. I may post a more real video showing where it fails, but I'll describe it for now.
1. Crossing the hands and arms one behind the other (with fingers spread so they are not completely blocked visibility wise, and then coming out the other side (just arms crossed) it starts to overlap them, but then it just removes the back hand until they come back with the appropriate hand on the left and right.
2. with the back of your hands facing you the tracking seems better if I move each finger up and down. If change to palm facing and close each finger up and down, it fairs much worse, unfortunately if I needed that functionality for the game even just thumb and fore finger, it simply isn't there. I tried with full palm facing, with no angle and space between the fingers, likely the most ideal tracking conditions for that test.
3. if I make a fist and flip it slowly from back to front and back again it works, however if I do it quickly, it missed the flip, and doesn't correct itself until I open my hand again.

I want to first still congratulate the hard work and development done by the leap motion people, Great hand tracking will make for great vr, controller handtracking makes for passable vr, keep making these improvements and I do believe you will be everywhere... I wonder if I should buy some stock now I think good things are coming :).

I do want also to encourage the devs to look into option #3 above, I think it will help alleviate some of the occlusion issues with one sensor, and maybe add a small real camera as it would likely allow them to fix the fist flip with that additional information. And really no one is going to balk at 160 (I'm assuming the sensor is still in the $80ish range) for great hand tracking (ok I wouldn't balk at it, and it could be an incremental purchase which is always easier )

Again great job guys!

[AlexColgan]

1. Future hardware will have better tracking in terms of a wider field of view, but the tracking limitations are fundamentally software not hardware. There is nearly limitless potential for improvement on the same hardware.

2. Hard to say at this stage.

3. Multiple sensor support is doable but not on the roadmap as of yet.

[theGladScientist]

How difficult would it be add Orion control to an existing Unity game that currently relies on the Vive/Touch controllers? Is there a good resource for that general process?

[AlexColgan]

Developers can add the Unity assets to their game fairly easily, since the assets themselves are designed to be compatible with standard handheld inputs. It's essentially drag-and-drop: https://github.com/leapmotion/UnityModules/wiki/Core

[AlexColgan]