Dubbed Orion, the
third version of Leap Motion’s software stack comes with a number of major
improvements to the tracking from lower latency, to faster more reliable
tracking. The improvements stem from a goal set in late 2014 when Leap Motion
decided to pivot their development from interaction with flat screens to
interaction with VR. There is an inherent disconnect when you try to pick
something up naturally and you don’t feel it there that is very similar to the
Uncanny Valley in robotics. You know you are getting there but you are just far
enough away from it that you notice. Audio helps with this however as Leap
Motion attempted to incorporate ‘audio haptics’, a synesthesia effect that
comes with incorporating a visceral and well timed sound effect with the
visuals on screen.
These effects
helped add to the immersion, but the real star was the fact that my hands no
longer went all cattywampus when I made a fast or difficult gesture. Even when
Leap fails (which it still will if you try) it doesn’t fail in the same
catastrophic way as it used to, they have smoothed out the edge cases. For
example, overlapping your hands (something the software still isn’t able to
resolve) leads to the bottom hand being hidden, rather than going crazy. This
actually helps increase the level of immersion because it is far less
noticeable than a hand dancing off into the corner. The system also handles
other difficult situations far better, such as tracking a hand against another
surface, like a pair of pants or a desk something that the previous edition of
the stack struggled with.
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