The question comes from David Holz, chief technology officer and co-founder of Leap Motion. In any other scenario, the query would seem odd, if not outright insane. But today, I’m sitting in a conference room with a virtual reality (VR) headset strapped to my face. The goggles take me out of the physical world and immerse me in a virtual one that’s a little like being inside Tron.
Typically, being in virtual reality means you can’t see anything in the real world, hands included. That makes it tough to interact with objects in the digital space. Some VR headset makers have addressed this problem with joysticks or gamepads similar to traditional video game controllers. But today, for the first time, I have honest-to-goodness virtual hands, complete with wiggling fingers. The difference is subtle and powerful all at once.
“Now try picking up that cube,” says Holz continues. I oblige, reaching out into a seemingly infinite space to grab the block in front of me. I fling it across a vast nothingness, because it seemed like the thing to do.
Leap Motion’s hands-on demo is powered by the company’s new Orion tracking system. Orion uses a combination of cameras and software to identify users’ hands in the physical space, then imports them into virtual worlds.
It’s a proof-of-concept more than anything else. But Holz and his team is hoping that when the beta version is made available Feb. 17, developers will build other more interesting experiences that bring hands into VR for the first time. If they do, it could help Leap Motion capture a slice of the booming virtual reality hardware market, estimated to be worth $70 billion by 2020.
One obvious use case: Video games. Imagine hurling boulders at virtual enemies, then pushing open a door to catch your breath. Education is a possibility here, too. Students could learn about astrophysics by interacting with virtual planets the same way they might build a solar system mobile.
Still, using Orion felt a little unusual. Using my hands to reach out and lift, move, or shove objects around me was more natural than doing so with a controller. But there’s still one big difference between my real hands and my virtual ones: The latter lack a sense of touch, sometimes breaking VR’s illusion.
See The Incredibly Goofy Evolution of Virtual Reality Headsets
1988
Andrew Mishkin wearing a 3-D virtual display helmet that is connected to a six-wheeled roving vehicle. The rover was meant to explore the surface of Mars and send back information.Roger Ressmeyer—Corbis1993
"Reality +" at the Virtual Reality Systems 93 show was described as a next generation, multi-player virtual reality entertainment system that gave a high sense of movement in a computer-generated world revealed in a head-mounted display. Alex Brandon—AP1993
The 3-player Budweiser virtual reality mask at the Food Marketing Institute's International Supermarket Industry Convention and Educational Expostion in Chicago.Mike Fisher—AP1993
A Virtual Reality contraption at the Sci Fi Channel booth at The National Cable Television Association annual convention, in San Francisco.George Nikitin—AP1994
Soldier training using a virtual reality-simulated 3-D shootout at an Army facility. Ben Van Hook—The LIFE Images Collection/Getty Images1995
A visitor checking out a virtual reality head-set at the G7 Information Society Showcase taking place at the European Parliament. The head-set was linked to a camera elsewhere in the building which the visitor could control through head movements. STR/Reuters1998
A researcher at Tokyo University's Intelligent Modeling Laboratory wearing 3-D glasses, extending his hands to touch carbon atoms in the microscopic world at the laboratory's virtual reality room. Yoshikazu Tsuno—AFP/Getty Images1999
Visitors enjoy virtual reality driving with 3-D goggles and driving simulators for the presentation of Japan's automaker Nissan at the Tokyo Motor Show in Tokyo.Kazuhiro Nogi—AFP/Getty Images2003
A visitor to the " Ars Electronica in a dish installation " Humphrey II" , which allowed virtual free flight through a 3D reconstruction of the city of Linz. Peter Zschunke—AP2005
A girl wore a full color head mounted display with a built-in camera as Japan's machinery maker Hitachi Zosen and Shimadzu unveiled a wearable computer, consisting of the HMD and a palm sized Windows XP PC with a pointing device at a virtual reality exhibition in Tokyo.Yoshikazu Tsuno—;AFP/Getty Images2006
Lt. David Shipley of the Adams County Sheriff's Department watched an interactive video that replicated the experiences of a schizophrenic patient having auditory and visual hallucinations while attempting to refill a prescription at a pharmacy.Karl Gehring—The Denver Post/Getty Images2008
Valeria Petkova, right, and student Andrew Ketterer, left, of the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, tested the 'body-swap' illusion, a method whereby people can experience the illusion that either a mannequin or another person's body is their own body.Niklas Larsson—AP2012
Raphael Pirker from Switzerland, founder of Team BlackSheep used virtual reality goggles to simulate the sensation of flight in the real world during a demonstration, flying from the perspective of a model aircraft, during a session of LeWeb'12 in Saint-Denis, near Paris.AFP/Getty Images2012
A man seeking a job was equipped with 3D spectacles with sensors as he trained in Clermont-Ferrand, central France with avatars (background) in a virtual reality cube, at business incubator Pascalis.Thierry Zoccolan—AFP/Getty Images2012
Peter Kenny
Jan Torpus, director of Lifeclipper project, tested the immersive augmented reality equipment in St Johanns Park in Basel, Switzerland.Sebastien Bozon—AFP/Getty Images2013
Professor Karl Oldhafer, chief physician of general and visceral surgery at the Asklepios Hospital Hamburg-Barmbek, before liver surgery. Oldhafer used augmented reality, which allowed the liver to be filmed with an iPad and overlaid during the operation with virtual 3D models reconstructed from the real organ. This procedure helped locate critical structures such as tumors and vessels and was expected to improve the quality of transferring pre-operational resection plans into actual surgery.Fabian Bimmer—Reuters2014
British television presenter Rachel Riley showed a virtual-reality headset called Gear VR during a Samsung event ahead of the consumer electronic fair IFA in Berlin.Markus Schreiber—AP2014
Tim Draper, Founder and Managing partner of 'Draper Fisher Jurvetson', tried out the latest in virtual reality technology the 2014 Kairos Global Summit at Ritz-Carlton Laguna Nigel in Dana Point, California.Jerod Harris—Getty Images for Kairos Soceity2014
A man played a game with the virtual reality head-mounted display 'Oculus Rift' at International Games Week in Berlin. The display transfers the eye movements to the game in real time. Daniel Naupold—Daniel Naupold/picture-alliance/Microsoft's Lorraine Bardeen demonstrates HoloLens headset during an event at the company's headquarters in Redmond, Wash. on Jan. 21, 2015.Elaine Thompson—AP
Other firms, too, are experimenting with ways to bring hand movement into virtual reality. Thalmic Labs’ Myo armband, for instance, works with the Oculus Rift to enable controller-free gameplay. But Leap Motion’s technology differs in that it uses a camera to track movements in users’ hands and fingers, meaning it can detect more detailed movements. The Myo, by comparison, reads muscle movement in the forearm to pick up on a limited set of gestures.
While the Orion demo was impressive, it’s up to VR hardware and software creators to integrate the technology into their offerings. The company says it’s working with several VR hardware firms to directly integrate its gadget into headsets, but it won’t offer specific details. In the meantime, Leap Motion’s Orion software will be compatible with its motion controller for laptop and desktop computers.
