Hands FAQ

An Ultraleap (Leap Motion) hand tracking sensor. Supported devices:

• Leap Motion Controller (the classic sensor)
• Leap Motion Controller 2
• Ultraleap Stereo IR 170

The classic sensor is no longer sold new but is easy to find second-hand and works fine for desk use. Field of view, range and availability for all three: depth sensor comparison.

Ultraleap’s tracking software (the Gemini generation). The app checks your drivers at startup and offers to download and install them for you; you can also manage them later via File > Drivers in the top menu.

No, only Ultraleap / Leap Motion sensors are supported. Kinect and other depth sensors are covered by the Body and PointCloud apps.

Not on one machine, the drivers support a single sensor per machine. You can run the app on two machines, each with its own sensor, and sync their recordings with Record Triggering.

Yes. Set Record Triggering to Master in one app and to Slave in the others: recording start/stop, filenames and folders are then synced. This works with multiple apps on the same machine and across machines on the same network, so you can capture hands together with body or face data.

Yes, tracking keeps working when the sensor is attached to your head or chest and moves along with you. There is a dedicated HMD mode that optimizes tracking for head-mounted use.

First look closely at how the bone axes of your character are aligned, and match those axes in Brekel Hands. Then it is a matter of setting up orientation/rotation constraints so your rig follows the data, or simply copying the animation curves over.

No. The tracker is based on computer vision and a trained model of bare hands. It gets confused when fingers are obscured by sticks, cups or other props. Reliably tracking hands holding props needs high-end optical motion capture equipment.

• Bigger and squarer field of view, and a longer range (the numbers are in the sensor comparison)
• Larger stereo baseline (can benefit depth estimation quality)
• Lower frame rate: 90 fps versus 115 fps on the classic sensor
• Lighter: 21 grams versus 31 grams
• More expensive

For head-mounted / VR use it has some benefits; for desk use the classic sensor does fine.