
Leap Motion designed a $100 augmented reality headset with hand tracking - tbassetto
https://www.theverge.com/2018/4/9/17208192/leap-motion-project-north-star-augmented-reality-headset-open-source-concept
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codezero
Don't let the price fool you. The price is why I bought the original Leap
Motion hand tracker and I was so disappointed. The technology was very good,
but its design as a human interface device was abysmal. I am still really
confused why they thought it would be good to require that an interface be
created for every piece of software it interacted with, rather than allowing
that as an option but also having a consistent, operating system level driver
that worked across apps with a set of basic gestures.

I basically got no use out of it and strongly regret the purchase. That's the
catch though, the price was just low enough to make me not that enraged, kind
of like this thing here. Am I going to do it again? Oh gosh, I might.

~~~
jsgo
I'm kind of in the same boat, although in time I've gradually become less
negative about it.

I, too, was wanting something that felt like a native peripheral but always
found that it is a module you more or less have to hack a solution onto. I was
also a bit disappointed as I bought it during the leap year promo (nice job,
Leap Motion, nice job) mostly for the thought that the little block throwing
demo was usable for me. Apparently, VR only. And that's what I found: it is
meant only for the AR/VR space even though they positioned it for other spaces
(at least, after Windows 8 died. They did try to demo start menu navigation
via gesture).

That being said, I think the possibilities are there and I'd give strong
consideration to it. I'd rather see them partner up with the
Valves/HTCs/Googles/Microsofts of the world as getting into a common framework
is going to be pretty important for their tech to really catch on.

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detaro
Official announcement post from Leap Motion:
[http://blog.leapmotion.com/northstar/](http://blog.leapmotion.com/northstar/)

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melling
$100 hand-tracking by itself that worked really well would be valuable.

The entire gesture interface has stalled. Google Soli, for example, hasn’t
progressed:

[https://atap.google.com/soli/](https://atap.google.com/soli/)

~~~
detaro
The hand-tracking is probably the same module as in their existing products,
and those have been available <100$ for years now (although they've gotten
improvements over time)

~~~
melling
They’ve improved the hardware but never released a standalone update. They’re
focusing on AR and VR headsets.

They were talking about DragonFly a few years ago:

[https://www.roadtovr.com/ces-2015-leap-motion-co-founders-
ta...](https://www.roadtovr.com/ces-2015-leap-motion-co-founders-talk-
dragonfly-made-vr-motion-input-camera/)

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jmeyers44
Leap Motion: What do developers want?

Developers: Hand tracking on mobile and an updated Android SDK.

Leap Motion: Ok, here's the blueprints to a PC tethered AR headset.

~~~
rasz
"Leap Motion sensor" is an USB 3.0 camera with clever driver, you can have it
on mobile when we start seeing USB 3.0 enabled smartphones.

~~~
leapmotion_alex
That's not a blocker. It's a USB 2 and 3 hybrid device, but we never actually
rolled out USB 3 in the firmware (would have raised the minimum spec too high
for too many people with almost no benefits), so it runs on USB 2.0.

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83457
I'm assuming the general idea is that multiple layers of depth perception are
not necessary if everything rendered is at very consistent range such as at
your hands in a natural position? Reminds me of the early oculus ducktape
prototypes vs VR headsets that cost tens of thousands of dollars. Limited
capability but straight forward and cheap in comparison.

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corysama
I had assumed these videos of wearable UI (pictured in the article) were
recorded on a Meta-2. Now I guess we know better.

[https://mobile.twitter.com/keiichiban/status/968534116420513...](https://mobile.twitter.com/keiichiban/status/968534116420513792)

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andromedaworld
That's incredibly affordable. These guys are impressive. I especially like
that they're software centric and they're interested in plugging into as many
devices as possible.

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josephpmay
They made some really interesting design choices that prioritize optical
quality over every other factor (ergonomics, look, etc.). Really interesting
approach to create a device that’s esentially only for UX prototyping. Cudos
to the Leap Morion team!

~~~
vokep
I think it does make sense. VR content is still lacking and will be until the
basics are figured out. Right now the most important part is getting content
out there. With current gen stuff, we have pretty good hardware already, but
not much content, and part of that is because the hardware is expected to
advance quickly. It makes sense as a game dev to wait for the basic hardware
of a 'VR headset' to be figured out.

Right now, there are so many potential questions: Should players be assumed to
have foveated rendering? for good vr content, probably, however few headsets
have any kind of FR yet.. Should players be assumed to have a certain
resolution headset? maybe, maybe they have high res screen but GPU can only
push it at lower resolution? How to handle text in a situation like this?
Degrade the experience of high resolution users by making all text yuge?
Ignore those with lower resolutions entirely?

Basically, I think content is best developed right now with a very high
standard of technology. So its better to have clunky, uncomfortable, but very
powerful headsets right now, so developers can create great content. Some
articles will still be written about how 'VR is dead!' until after awhile
someone releases a comfortable AR/VR headset with high resolution and foveated
rendering and it turns out theres a trove of content waiting. When that
happens, VR will truly be born. VR IS dead right now, because it has yet to
begin its life truly.

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toastking
So is part of the idea of releasing the schematics that it might push VR
headset makers to adopt a design similar to this?

~~~
josephpmay
No. The idea is that UX designers can use this to prototype for future AR
headsets

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Analemma_
I'll believe it when I can buy it. For the last eight years, Magic Leap has
produced a lot of hype and no product.

~~~
tbassetto
This is about Leap Motion and not Magic Leap though.

~~~
jsgo
haha, I made the same mistake in reverse though when I was underwhelmed by
Magic Leap due to the Leap Motion controller I bought.

I guess that it is both companies have "Leap" being the non-modifying sounding
word in the name and being in the same space? I feel bad for both that the
confusion is there.

