April 12, 2022 – Ultraleap, a provider of extended reality (XR) technologies such as hand tracking and mid-air haptics, has today announced a Hand Tracking Accessory for the Pico Neo 3 Pro and Pico Neo 3 Pro Eye to offer natural interaction solutions for enterprise virtual reality (VR).
The new accessory will be available as a bundle combined with the Pico Neo 3 Pro or Pro Eye VR headsets. Early access of Ultraleap’s Hand Tracking Accessory is available now for developers, evaluation, and proof of concepts, with the full bundle for scalable deployments coming in summer 2022.
The Ultraleap Hand Tracking Accessory for the Pico Neo 3 Pro consists of the Ultraleap Stereo IR 170 hand tracking camera in a bespoke mount. Ultraleap’s latest generation of software, Gemini, will also be pre-installed on the chosen headset. According to the company, Unity and Unreal platforms are supported for the early access bundle, with more tooling options being created for the summer 2022 bundle launch.
Ultraleap stated that using hand tracking to replace or supplement gaming controllers will help to expand the VR enterprise market, opening up new possibilities such as VR training experiences for flight attendants or even surgical training. Hand tracking can also be used to reduce onboarding time and make VR more approachable for first-time or inexperienced users in Location-Based Entertainment (LBE).
Matt Tullis, VP, XR at Ultraleap, said: “VR for training is on the cusp of mainstream adoption and we truly believe hand tracking plays an important part in tipping it over the edge. We’re already seeing significant wins from customers who have deployed VR training programmes or LBE experiences with hand tracking. This first phase of the Pico relationship will mean more developers and organizations will be able to test, pilot and refine their applications to unlock the true power of VR now and deploy at scale in a few months.”
Leland Hedges, GM for Pico Interactive Europe, said: “We’re very excited to bring Ultraleap hand tracking to our latest VR headsets through this accessory. When applications need the highest performing hand tracking for complex interactions or challenging environments, Ultraleap’s hand tracking really is world-class. We can’t wait to see what developers and organizations will create from this joint effort.”
Key features of Ultraleap’s Hand Tracking Accessory for Pico Neo 3 Pro/Pro Eye include:
- Tracking range and field of view: Depth of between 10 cm (4”) to 75cm (29.5”) preferred, up to 1 m (39”) maximum; 170×170° typical field of view (160×160° minimum);
- Cameras: Stereo infrared operating at 90fps;
- Operating wavelength: 850nm. Provides its own illumination via two infrared LEDs spaced on either side of the cameras.
Ultraleap added that tracking works in a range of environmental conditions, is able to track diverse hand sizes, and allows users to interact with both hands together.
To purchase the accessory through the early access bundle please visit Ultraleap and Pico’s list of distributors. The two companies will also be demoing the solution at the Laval Virtual conference this week from booth A28.
For more information on Ultraleap and its hand tracking solutions for XR, click here. To find out more about Pico and its VR headsets, click here.
Image credit: Ultraleap / Pico
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Sam is the Founder and Managing Editor of Auganix. With a background in research and report writing, he has been covering XR industry news for the past seven years.