Leap Motion technology will be experienced soon by many Virtual Reality enthusiasts as it expanded its availability to mobile devices. The planned launch of hand motion in mobile VR headsets is definitely a game changer in the VR market.
Computer hardware sensor company Leap Motion is soon to announce its new Leap Motion Mobile Platform to the market. It is expected that the technology will be incorporated to most mobile VR headsets available in the market.
According to The Verge, the Leap Motion Mobile Platform has two small cameras that are embedded in the face plate. The cameras will detect the finger motion which is integrated to lower-powered VR experiences. The technology is expected to be released next year with the available commercial VR headsets. However, there's no confirmation to which device it will be released.
Leap Motion started in 2010 mounted on a desktop with no VR hand tracker. "We always thought of the PC as the first touch point on a journey that would be about five or six years," Michael Buckwald, cofounder of Leap Motion explained.
The new Leap Motion Mobile Platform is designed to allow people to use their hands to hold, pick up, push or toss any objects in virtual reality. Leap Motion technology will make hand controllers of high-end systems to be ditched as it is considered as the "iPhone moment for VR" according to Buckwald.
According to TechCrunch, Leap Motion founder went to their offices and introduced a reference design for Samsung Gear VR. Tech Crunch said that the result was "extremely impressive." The Leap Motion is placed on the VR headset with a correct tilt and angle to point where the user's hand normally be.
The demo version of Leap Motion is not as smooth as it seems but, it performed well with its hand sensors. Since it's only a standard demo, the Leap Motion technology can only track the user's hand and not the positional tracking of the VR headset user.
Meanwhile, VR headset makers are becoming interested with the inside-out tracking technology like with Leap Motion. Buckwald bragged that Leap Motion is the only one that can do finger tracking "for at least another four to five years." He added that it would be practical for companies to license Leap Motion technology than to make its own software.
