Leap Motion Blog

Building the world’s most advanced augmented reality headset isn’t exactly for beginners. But at the world’s first #BuildYourNorthStar workshop, over 20 participants built their own open-so...

https://blog.leapmotion.com/north-star-workshop-augmented-reality-for-everyone/

The future of open source augmented reality just got easier to build. Since our last major release, we’ve streamlined Project North Star even further, including improvements to the calibration ...

https://blog.leapmotion.com/project-north-star-mechanical-and-calibration-update-3-1/

 Over the past few months we’ve hit several major milestones in the development of Project North Star. At the same time, hardware hackers have built their own versions of the AR headset, with ...

https://blog.leapmotion.com/how-a-self-taught-teen-built-his-own-north-star-headset/

Bringing new worlds to life doesn’t end with bleeding-edge software – it’s also a battle with the laws of physics. Project North Star is a compelling glimpse into the future of AR interacti...

https://blog.leapmotion.com/bending-reality-north-stars-calibration-system/

Today we’re excited to share the latest major design update for the Leap Motion North Star headset. North Star Release 3 consolidates several months of research and insight into a new set of 3D...

https://blog.leapmotion.com/project-north-star-mechanical-update-3/

Earlier this week, we shared an experimental build of our LeapUVC API, which gives you a new level of access to the Leap Motion Controller cameras. Today we’re excited to share a second experim...

https://blog.leapmotion.com/multiple-devices/

In 2014 we released the Leap Motion Image API, to unlock the possibilities of using the Leap Motion Controller’s twin infrared cameras. Today we’re releasing an experimental expansion of our ...

https://blog.leapmotion.com/leapuvc/

Earlier this summer, we open sourced the design for Project North Star, the world’s most advanced augmented reality R&D platform. Like the first chocolate waterfall outside of Willy Wonka’s f...

https://blog.leapmotion.com/japan-joins-project-north-star/

Virtual reality. Augmented reality. Mixed, hyper, modulated, mediated, diminished reality. All of these flavours are really just entry points into a vast world of possibilities where we can navig...

https://blog.leapmotion.com/mirrorworlds/

This week we’re excited to share a new engine integration with the professional animation community – Leap Motion and iClone 7 Motion LIVE. A full body motion capture platform designed for pe...

https://blog.leapmotion.com/leap-motion-iclone-7-animation/

This morning, we released an update to the North Star headset assembly. The project CAD files now fit the Leap Motion Controller and add support for alternate headgear and torsion spring hinges. ...

https://blog.leapmotion.com/project-north-star-mechanical-update-1/

At Leap Motion, we’re always looking to advance our interactions in ways that push our hardware and software. As one of the lead engineers on Project North Star, I believe that augmented realit...

https://blog.leapmotion.com/master-reality-project-northstar/

VR, AR and hand tracking are often considered to be futuristic technologies, but they also have the potential to be the easiest to use. For the launch of our V4 software, we set ourselves the cha...

https://blog.leapmotion.com/designing-cat-explorer/

Today we’re excited to announce the latest milestone of our journey with a major release of our Orion VR tracking software, now available for public beta on Windows. This is the fourth generati...

https://blog.leapmotion.com/v4/

At Leap Motion, we envision a future where the physical and virtual worlds blend together into a single magical experience. At the heart of this experience is hand tracking, which unlocks interac...

https://blog.leapmotion.com/north-star-open-source/

When we embarked on this journey, there were many things we didn’t know. What does hand tracking need to be like for an augmented reality headset? How fast does it need to be; do we need a hund...

https://blog.leapmotion.com/our-journey-to-the-north-star/

Leap Motion is a company that has always been focused on human-computer interfaces. We believe that the fundamental limit in technology is not its size or its cost or its speed, but how we intera...

https://blog.leapmotion.com/northstar/

With virtual and augmented reality on the rise, so is the number of available platforms, input standards, and design paradigms. To harness the force of this horizontal expansion, we have to funda...

https://blog.leapmotion.com/keiichi-matsuda-gdc/

There’s something magical about building in VR. Imagine being able to assemble weightless car engines, arrange dynamic virtual workspaces, or create imaginary castles with infinite bricks. Arra...

https://blog.leapmotion.com/scaffolding-in-vr-interaction-design-for-stacking-and-assembly/

One of the core design philosophies at Leap Motion is that the most intuitive and natural interactions are direct and physical. Manipulating objects with our bare hands lets us leverage a lifetim...

https://blog.leapmotion.com/summoning-superpowers-designing-vr-interactions-distance/

When you reach out and grab a virtual object or surface, there’s nothing stopping your physical hand in the real world. To make physical interactions in VR feel compelling and natural, we have ...

https://blog.leapmotion.com/interaction-sprint-exploring-the-hand-object-boundary/

As mainstream VR/AR input continues to evolve – from the early days of gaze-only input to wand-style controllers and fully articulated hand tracking – so too are the virtual user interfaces w...

https://blog.leapmotion.com/design-playground-3d-user-interfaces/

Last time, we looked at how an interactive VR sculpture could be created with the Leap Motion Graphic Renderer as part of an experiment in interaction design. With the sculpture’s shapes render...

https://blog.leapmotion.com/crafting-reactive-behaviors-interaction-engine/

With the next generation of mobile VR/AR experiences on the horizon, our team is constantly pushing the boundaries of our VR UX developer toolkit. Recently we created a quick VR sculpture prototy...

https://blog.leapmotion.com/design-sprints-leap-motion-building-sculpture-prototype-graphic-renderer/

Explorations in VR Design is a journey through the bleeding edge of VR design – from architecting a space and designing groundbreaking interactions to making users feel powerful. Sound is essen...

https://blog.leapmotion.com/explorations-vr-sound-design/

Explorations in VR Design is a journey through the bleeding edge of VR design – from architecting a space and designing groundbreaking interactions to making users feel powerful. Explore our la...

https://blog.leapmotion.com/beyond-flatland-user-interface-design-vr/

As humans, we are spatial, physical thinkers. From birth we grow to understand the objects around us by the rules that govern how they move, and how we move them. These rules are so fundamental t...

https://blog.leapmotion.com/interaction-engine/

Creating a sense of space is one of the most powerful tools in a VR developer’s arsenal. In our Exploration on World Design, we looked at how to create moods and experiences through imaginary...

https://blog.leapmotion.com/space-and-perspective/

Explorations in VR Design is a journey through the bleeding edge of VR design – from architecting a space and designing groundbreaking interactions to making users feel powerful. Explore our la...

https://blog.leapmotion.com/art-storytelling-narrative-vr/

Explorations in VR Design is a journey through the bleeding edge of VR design – from architecting a space, to designing groundbreaking interactions, to making users feel powerful. Virtual reali...

https://blog.leapmotion.com/designing-physical-interactions-for-objects-that-dont-exist/

Explorations in VR Design is a journey through the bleeding edge of VR design – from architecting a space, to designing groundbreaking interactions, to making users feel powerful. What’s the ...

https://blog.leapmotion.com/ergonomics-vr-design/

Explorations in VR Design is a journey through the bleeding edge of VR design – from architecting a space, to designing groundbreaking interactions, to making users feel powerful. Explore our l...

https://blog.leapmotion.com/designing-orion-tracking-quick-guide/

Explorations in VR Design is a journey through the bleeding edge of VR design – from architecting a space, to designing groundbreaking interactions, to making users feel powerful. In the world ...

https://blog.leapmotion.com/building-blocks-deep-dive-leap-motion-interactive-design/

Explorations in VR Design is a journey through the bleeding edge of VR design – from architecting a space, to designing groundbreaking interactions, to making users feel powerful. Designing the...

https://blog.leapmotion.com/world-design-setting-stage/

Until the rise of VR, we lived on the edges of a digital universe that was trapped behind glass screens. Immensely powerful and infinitely portable, but still distant and inaccessible. Now the gl...

https://blog.leapmotion.com/explorations-vr-design/

Martin Schubert is a VR Developer/Designer at Leap Motion and the creator of Weightless and Geometric. In architecture school, we had many long discussions about things most non-designers probabl...

https://blog.leapmotion.com/what-makes-a-spoon-a-spoon-form-and-function-in-vr-industrial-design/

Breaking into VR development doesn’t need to break the bank. If you have a newer Android phone and a good gaming computer, it’s possible to prototype, test, and share your VR projects with th...

https://blog.leapmotion.com/vr-prototyping-less-100-leap-motion-vridge/

Update (6/8/17): Interaction Engine 1.0 is here! Read more on our release announcement: blog.leapmotion.com/interaction-engine Game physics engines were never designed for human hands. In fact, ...

https://blog.leapmotion.com/introducing-interaction-engine-early-access-beta/

One of the most widely played games on the face of the planet is your only means of survival in RPS Island. Created by ISVR, it took third place in this year’s 3D Jam VR Track for addictive ga...

https://blog.leapmotion.com/defeat-enemies-rock-paper-scissors-rps-island/

A lot has been going on behind the scenes here at Leap Motion. Today we’re excited to finally share what we’ve been building for the last year – Orion. We believe that technology has the po...

https://blog.leapmotion.com/orion/

Shoot ’em ups, games of skill, racing games, retro demos, and more – check out 13 arcade-style 3D Jam projects. There are just 10 more days to vote for your favorites! Cast your votes at itch...

https://blog.leapmotion.com/shoot-terrifying-monsters-become-one-3djam-arcade/

Want to play the latest 3D Jam demos, but don’t have an Oculus Rift? Check out these 12 games built for Windows PCs, including the power to create (and shatter) glass animals, the Zen apocalyps...

https://blog.leapmotion.com/12-new-games-windows-glass-animals-alien-planet-racing/

After six weeks of intense competition, the 2015 3D Jam is now closed with 180+ submissions! Here are the winners of our final #ScreenshotSaturday Challenge round – the very best #3DJam screens...

https://blog.leapmotion.com/screenshotsaturday-challenge-vr-musicality-shopping-spree/

Another week, another round of #ScreenshotSaturday Challenge winners! From data diving and spider splatter to haunted houses, jet flight, and space explosions, here are the very best #3DJam scree...

https://blog.leapmotion.com/screenshotsaturday-challenge-alien-spiders-data-pools/

There are no limits to what you can hack together with the Leap Motion Controller – which is why this year’s Leap Motion 3D Jam includes an Open Track for desktop and Internet of Things pro...

https://blog.leapmotion.com/making-fist-raptor-hand/

Last week, we kicked off a #ScreenshotSaturday Challenge, with 15 T-shirts up for grabs to developers sharing the very best #3DJam screenshots and videos on Twitter. The first round wrapped up wi...

https://blog.leapmotion.com/screenshotsaturday-challenge-vr-guitar-wizard-bowling/

At its most powerful, education harnesses our natural curiosity as human beings to understand the universe and everything in it. This week on the blog, we’re exploring what it means to actually...

https://blog.leapmotion.com/build-world-class-education-app/

At its most powerful, education harnesses our natural curiosity as human beings to understand the universe and everything in it. This week on the blog, we’re exploring what it means to actually...

https://blog.leapmotion.com/tectonic-shift-education-change-forever/

The world is changing – can you hack it? At Leap Motion, we believe that the next wave of technological interfaces will rely on the original human operating system: your hands. Whether you’re...

https://blog.leapmotion.com/reach-digital-world-getting-started-leap-motion-hackingedu/

It’s #ScreenshotSaturday, and you know what that means – time to take a look at the very latest projects for the 3D Jam. We’re almost at the halfway mark, which means that developers are st...

https://blog.leapmotion.com/happy-screenshotsaturday-3d-jam-mid-progress-roundup/

Much like sketching the first few lines on a blank canvas, the earliest prototypes of a VR project is an exciting time for fun and experimentation. Concepts evolve, interactions are created and d...

https://blog.leapmotion.com/escape-virtual-reality-telekinetic-powers/

In the tech world, “making the world a better place” has become a bit of a cliché. But with over a billion people living with some form of disability or impairment, medical technology can ma...

https://blog.leapmotion.com/changing-people-look-physical-therapy/

Developers around the globe have until Nov. 9th to build the most amazing experiences for virtual reality, desktop, mobile, and beyond – with over $75,000 in cash and prizes up for grabs. Regi...

https://blog.leapmotion.com/infographic-building-3d-jam-vr-project/

On your mark, get set, GO! This morning, our second annual 3D Jam kicks off with developers around the world competing for over $75,000 in cash and prizes – building brand new experiences for v...

https://blog.leapmotion.com/welcome-2015-3d-jam/

With the 3D Jam just around the corner, we thought we’d give you a headstart – with a full guide to the very latest resources to bring your to life. In this post, we’ll cover everything ...

https://blog.leapmotion.com/essential-3d-jam-development-guide/

What makes a collection of pixels into a magic experience? The art of storytelling. At the latest VRLA Summer Expo, creative coder Isaac Cohen (aka Cabbibo) shared his love for the human possibil...

https://blog.leapmotion.com/objects-scenes-stories-magic-3d/

Our second annual 3D Jam kicks off in just a few weeks, and it’s bigger than ever! Today we’re excited to announce new prizes for competitors, bringing up our prize total to over $75,000. And...

https://blog.leapmotion.com/3d-jam-now-75k-prizes/

When the Leap Motion Controller made its rounds at our office a couple of years ago, it’s safe to say we were blown away. For me at least, it was something from the future. I was able to physic...

https://blog.leapmotion.com/controlling-physical-world-leap-motion-raspberry-pi/

As the 3D Jam approaches, developers around the globe are already getting a headstart on their projects. Zach Kinstner, the creator behind Hovercast and Firework Factory, has been sharing his lat...

https://blog.leapmotion.com/video-series-taking-vr-guitar-whole-new-depth/

Hey everyone! As part of our global tour for the Leap Motion 3D Jam, we’re at Berlin’s Game Science Centre to take developers through our SDK and building with the latest VR tools. Registrati...

https://blog.leapmotion.com/live-berlin-vr-workshops-unity-javascript/

It’s back and bigger than ever! On September 28th, Leap Motion is kicking off its second annual global competition for developers building innovative experiences for virtual reality, desktop, m...

https://blog.leapmotion.com/leap-motion-3d-jam-2-0-launches-sept-28th/

Have you ever received an MRI scan back from the lab and thought to yourself, “I’m not sure how even a medical professional could derive any insightful information from this blast of murky im...

https://blog.leapmotion.com/this-is-your-brain-vr/

Boom! The white globe in front of you explodes into an array of color and light. A fraction of a second later – whoosh! – glowing stars streak past your head, leaving you in their colorful wa...

https://blog.leapmotion.com/firework-factory-vr-touch-show-fourth-july/

Music videos have evolved significantly since TRL. Last week, we were thrilled to come across a new release from Darwin Deez called Kill Your Attitude, where the perils of modern love take some t...

https://blog.leapmotion.com/music-video-calls-swat-team-dirty-dish-crimes/

Among developers, interactive designers, and digital artists, Processing is an enormously popular way to build compelling experiences with minimal coding. We’ve seen hundreds of Leap Motion exp...

https://blog.leapmotion.com/featured-platform-build-visually-stunning-experiences-processing/

As our physical reality becomes increasingly augmented, creative coders are able to access a whole new trove of intriguing possibilities. Several weeks back, we stumbled upon one such experiment ...

https://blog.leapmotion.com/augment-arm-designing-3d-printed-wearables-skin/

For hardware hackers, boards like Arduino and Raspberry Pi are the essential building blocks that let them mix and mash things together. But while these devices don’t have the processing power ...

https://blog.leapmotion.com/integrate-leap-motion-arduino-raspberry-pi/

The prospect of existing within the Internet is a concept straight from science fiction, but one we’ve been helping to build for some time. Simply gazing upon the Internet is starting to look a...

https://blog.leapmotion.com/featured-platform-building-metaverse-todays-web-janusvr/

When virtual reality and musical interface design collide, entire universes can be musical instruments. Created by artists Rob Hamilton and Chris Platz for the Stanford Laptop Orchestra, Carillon...

https://blog.leapmotion.com/twist-gears-massive-vr-music-engine-carillon/

Hot-air balloons floating hundreds of feet above the ground. A fighter jet soaring through the sky. A rock concert in Rio. And, of course, a paraglider dressed up as Batman, complete with Batmobi...

https://blog.leapmotion.com/kolors-vr-movies-let-paraglide-batman-seriously/

The frustrating thing about raw Twitter data is that it tends to remove the very element that makes the platform so interesting in the first place: the nuance of human sentiment. But what if you ...

https://blog.leapmotion.com/alien-spaceship-twittersphere/

Tomorrow in Montreal, audience members at the IX Symposium will see one of Jupiter’s moons appear inside a 60-foot dome. But this isn’t something you can find in a telescope – it’s a trip...

https://blog.leapmotion.com/reach-jupiters-biggest-moon-massive-leap-motion-art-experience/

One of the most powerful things about the Leap Motion platform is its ability to tie into just about any creative platform. That's why we've just launched a Platform Integrations & Libraries show...

https://blog.leapmotion.com/feature-integration-get-creative-vuo/

From building 3D scenes to designing object interactions, distance is an essential part of VR design that has to balance hardware needs and user instincts. The post The Goggles… They Do Somet...

https://blog.leapmotion.com/the-goggles-they-do-something-distance-vr/

Vivid Vision thinks so, and they want it to help millions of people. Formerly known as Diplopia, they believe that VR can help treat common vision problems like lazy eye and cross-eye, which happ...

https://blog.leapmotion.com/can-vr-change-how-your-brain-lazy-eye-works/

Hand tracking and virtual reality are both emerging technologies, and combining the two into a fluid and seamless experience can be a real challenge. This month, we’re exploring the bleeding ed...

https://blog.leapmotion.com/truly-3d-operating-system-look-like/

From drinking your morning coffee to turning off the lamp, you use your hands thousands of times a day. It’s easy to take for granted – until your hands don’t cooperate. To help people reha...

https://blog.leapmotion.com/leap-motion-vs-gloves-new-medical-study/

Earlier today, indie studio HE SAW launched the full version of Blue Estate, the darkly funny rail shooter based on the critically acclaimed comics series. Featuring hours of new gameplay, new en...

https://blog.leapmotion.com/technicolor-absurdity-bullet-riddled-mayhem-blue-estate-back/

This weekend, Team Leap Motion made the trip from San Francisco to join over 1500 students at the Pauley Pavilion. Amidst the sleeping bags, Red Bulls, and bleary-eyed jamming sessions, we watche...

https://blog.leapmotion.com/vr-trauma-3d-design-la-hacks-2015/

This week, we're happy to announce that the source code for Planetarium is now available on GitHub. It's been an incredible project so far, and our team is excited to continue developing our core...

https://blog.leapmotion.com/planetariums-source-code-now-public-github/

Leap Motion soloist? It’s not as strange as it might sound at first. At a recent performance of the Berklee Symphony Orchestra, Muse co-creator Dr. Richard Boulanger played alongside classical ...

https://blog.leapmotion.com/fingerpainting-soundscapes-muse-leap-motion-berklee-symphony-orchestra/

In yesterday’s post, I talked about the need for 3D design tools for VR that can match the power of our imaginations. After being inspired by street artists like Sergio Odeith, I made sketches ...

https://blog.leapmotion.com/building-graffiti-3d-journey-space-design/

What if you could create art outside the boundaries of physics, but still within the real world? For artists like Sergio Odeith, this means playing tricks with perspective. Sergio makes stunning ...

https://blog.leapmotion.com/express-augmenting-reality-graffiti-3d/

What if you could disassemble a robot at a touch? Motion control opens up exciting possibilities for manipulating 3D designs, with VR adding a whole new dimension to the mix. Recently, Battleship...

https://blog.leapmotion.com/cad-experiment-disassemble-spherical-robot-vr/

The "Augmented Hand Series" (by Golan Levin, Chris Sugrue, and Kyle McDonald) is a real-time interactive software system that presents playful, dreamlike, and uncanny transformations of its visit...

https://blog.leapmotion.com/reach-uncanny-valley-augmented-hand-series/

Over the next several weeks, we’re spotlighting the top 20 3D Jam experiences chosen by the jury and community votes. These spotlights will focus on game design, interaction design, and the big...

https://blog.leapmotion.com/press-bird-play-pirate-mini-games-thieving-seagulls/

Over the next several weeks, we’re spotlighting the top 20 3D Jam experiences chosen by the jury and community votes. These spotlights will focus on game design, interaction design, and the big...

https://blog.leapmotion.com/take-flight-restore-balance-animal-kingdom-crow/

Over the next several weeks, we’re spotlighting the top 20 3D Jam experiences chosen by the jury and community votes. These spotlights will focus on game design, interaction design, and the big...

https://blog.leapmotion.com/inside-mysterious-beauty-hammer-labs-otherworld/

In the lead-up to IndieCade East, we’re spotlighting the top 20 3D Jam experiences chosen by the jury and community votes. These spotlights will focus on game design, interaction design, and th...

https://blog.leapmotion.com/take-reins-ghostly-hayride-cherry-pie-games-hollow/

Over the next several weeks, we’re spotlighting the top 20 3D Jam experiences chosen by the jury and community votes. These spotlights will focus on game design, interaction design, and the big...

https://blog.leapmotion.com/step-darkness-observatorium/

Over the next several weeks, we’re spotlighting the top 20 3D Jam experiences chosen by the jury and community votes. These spotlights will focus on game design, interaction design, and the big...

https://blog.leapmotion.com/gooze-virtual-horror-based-real-life-ruin/

Over the next several weeks, we’re spotlighting the top 20 3D Jam experiences chosen by the jury and community votes. These spotlights will focus on game design, interaction design, and the big...

https://blog.leapmotion.com/magicraft-swords-sorcery-vr/

Over the next several weeks, we’re spotlighting the top 20 3D Jam experiences chosen by the jury and community votes. These spotlights will focus on game design, interaction design, and the big...

https://blog.leapmotion.com/lets-make-fried-rice-tool-tracking-casual-cooking/

The latest version of Widgets is now available through our Unity Core Assets! Version 2.1.0 introduces the Dial Picker Widget and data binding model, along with several performance optimizations....

https://blog.leapmotion.com/widgets-2-1-0-featuring-dial-picker-data-binding/

Kevin Tsang’s ElementL: Ghost Story placed 6th in the 3D Jam, and is one of several demos we’re showcasing this weekend at IndieCade East. In this VR demo, as a Taoist monk you’ve been sent...

https://blog.leapmotion.com/elementl-master-the-elements-and-battle-evil-spirits-in-vr/

Today’s spotlight is a double-feature, as development studio VRARlab have two games in the 3D Jam top 20! Hauhet is a futuristic VR puzzle game, while Paper Plane lets you fly a plane through g...

https://blog.leapmotion.com/3d-jam-simple-elegant-fun-vrarlabs-hauhet-and-paper-plane/

Hi, I’m Wilbur Yu! You might remember me from such webcasts as Let’s Play! Soon You Will Fly and Getting Started with VR. In this post, we’ll look at how we structured Widgets to be as acce...

https://blog.leapmotion.com/exploring-structure-ui-widgets/

Daniel here again! This time around, I’ll talk a bit about how we handled integrating the UI Widgets into the data model for Planetarium, and what this means for you. The first iteration of W...

https://blog.leapmotion.com/designing-widgets-event-data-binding-model/

One of the major features of Planetarium is the ability to travel around the globe using motion controls. While this approach is still rough and experimental, we learned a lot from its developmen...

https://blog.leapmotion.com/travelling-around-globe-sky-planetarium/

At Leap Motion, we’ve been working on new resources to make developing VR/AR applications easier, including Widgets – fundamental UI building blocks for Unity. In part 3, Barrett talks about ...

https://blog.leapmotion.com/brief-history-time-dial/