New Leap Motion 2 Brings High-end Hand-tracking to Standalone Headsets

Home » New Leap Motion 2 Brings High-end Hand-tracking to Standalone Headsets
<img src="https://roadtovrlive-5ea0.kxcdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/leap-motion-2-hand-tracking-341×220.jpg" width="341" height="220" title="Leap Motion 2 in front of its predecessor Image courtesy Leap Motion

(It should be noted that Leap Motion was once both the name of the device and the company itself, Leap Motion was merged with another company to form Ultraleap back in 2019.)

More recently the company has built newer versions of its hand-tracking module—including integrations with headsets from the likes of Varjo and Lynx—but never sold that newer hardware as a standalone tracking module that anyone could buy. Until now.

Leap Motion 2 is the first new standalone hand-tracking module from the company since the original, and it’s already available for pre-order, priced at $140, and expected to ship this Summer.

Purportedly built for “XR, desktop use, holographic displays, and Vtubing,” Ultraleap says the Leap Motion 2 is its “most flexible camera ever” thanks to support for Windows, MacOS, and standalone Android headsets with Qualcomm’s XR2 chip.

Image courtesy Ultraleap

From a specs standpoint, the company says the new tracker has “higher resolution cameras, increased field-of-view, and 25% lower power consumption, all in a 30% smaller package for optimum placement and convenience.”

Ultraleap says that Leap Motion 2 will give developers an easy way to experiment with high-quality hand-tracking by adding it to headsets like Varjo Aero, Pico Neo 3 Pro, and Lenovo’s ThinkReality VRX. The company also plans to sell a mount for the device to be attached to XR headsets, as it did with the original device.

Image courtesy Ultraleap

And with the launch of this next-gen hand-tracking module, Ultraleap says it’s moving on from the original Leap Motion tracker.

“Existing customers [using the first Leap Motion module] may continue to access the latest compatible software including the soon-to-be-released Gemini for macOS. Support will also continue to be provided. Future versions of the software will not deliver any performance improvements to the original Leap Motion Controller device,” the company says.

Ultraleap said it has sold more than 1 million Leap Motion trackers to date, with some 350,000 developers having build apps and experiences using the company’s hand-tracking tech.