Leap Motion Gets Your Hands in the Game

sensors to the controller on the headset, giving users a real
time view of the environment.
The API expands the tracking space to any direction the user
is facing.
Its field of view exceeds that of existing VR displays so users
can track their hands before they come into their field of
vision -- effectively expanding their peripheral vision with
the headset on.
The mount, which lets devs attach and remove the Leap
Motion controller from a VR headset, is available from the
company online for US$20.
Virtual Love
The API "closes the gap between Oculus Rift and
Project Morpheus, and now Oculus reaches parity
with, if not surpasses, what Sony is able to do with
Morpheus," said Lewis Ward, research director for
gaming at IDC.
Until now, the Morpheus VR headset let users know
where their hands were, whereas Oculus did not.
"It's essential that if you're going to do an
immersive VR experience, you have your hands in
there and being represented in real time," Ward
told TechNewsWorld.
More Fun for Gamers
Doing away with the need for a handheld controller is a big
boost for gamers, Eric Smith, an analyst at Strategy Analytics,
told TechNewsWorld.
"One of the main challenges VR faces is the same that 3D TV
faces -- there's a lot of bulky equipment you have to put on
to use it," Smith said.
"Imagine being able to grab onto a virtual object with no
intermediary," Smith mused. "Things as simple as opening a
door -- very mundane, but it's those very realistic
experiences in VR that allow you to lose yourself when
you're in those games."
Green Fields for Devs
The API "lets Oculus developers bring natural hand motions
into the game," Ward pointed out. "It opens up the
possibility for manipulating these virtual worlds to a much
greater extent than having to hold a controller."
"There's some enthusiasm among developers for creating
whole new experiences from an entirely new perspective,"
Smith remarked. "This changes the game for developers."
VR "is a green field for developers," he added. "They're able
to put their stamp on something that's coming to the fore
now."
Other Uses, Other Places
It's not just gamers and game devs who will get a kick out of
advances in the VR industry such as Leap's new API.
"This type of imaging will probably go further than gaming,"
Susan Schreiner, an analyst at C4 Trends, told
TechNewsWorld. "There are real implications for this in
medicine, health and certain types of businesses."
The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai is the first in
the United States to use a virtual reality simulator for
training.
Harley Witt last year put together a prototype mirrored
reality game that combined Oculus Rift with Leap Motion.
The Leap Motion controller was combined with the Oculus
Rift and Google Maps and demoed at Google I/O 2013.
Enthusiast Lucas Sicialano integrated Oculus Rift with
Google's Street View database, to provide an immersive
experience.
"We're now into this 3D world in so many different ways that
I don't know what the permutations of this will be,"
Schreiner said. "This is going to be an evolutionary type of
technology."