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// Developer Labs

New projects and features, insights on the future of human-computer interaction, and updates on Leap Motion developer communities around the world.

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 to run our core tracking software, there are many ways to bridge hand tracking input on your computer with the Internet of Things.

In this post, we’ll look at a couple of platforms that can get you started right away, along with some other open source examples. This is by no means an exhaustive list – Arduino’s website features hundreds of connective possibilities, from different communication protocols to software integrations. Whether you connect your board directly to your computer, or send signals over wifi, there’s always a way to hack it.

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 bit ‘90s – but how do you go about constructing a digital universe where 2D and 3D content can coexist in a way that is both seamless and satisfying?

Meet JanusVR, a team of two VR veterans looking to reshape the way you connect to the world and its infinite digital content. Inspired in part by Snow Crash’s Metaverse, James McCrae and Karan Singh sought to build a network of VR portals within which users can collaborate, communicate, explore, and even create new 3D content.

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 is a networked VR instrument that brings you inside a massive virtual bell tower. By reaching into the inner workings and playing with the gears, you can create hauntingly beautiful, complex music.

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 Batmobile. These are just some of the videos that you can dive into with Kolor’s 360° video player Kolor Eyes, now featured on the Leap Motion Developer Gallery.

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 could harness the power of that data back with your own two hands, set to music?

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 trippy virtual environment with stark geometric shapes and classical forms.

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 showcase where you can discover the latest wrappers, plugins, and integrations.
Our first featured integration is Vuo, an extraordinarily flexible visual programming language for developers and designers. There are already 6 Vuo examples for on our Developer Gallery, which include Mac executables and project files – so you can download, import, and see how they all fit together. Recently, we caught up with Jaymie Strecker, one of the key developers on Team 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.

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 happen when the brain ignores input from the weaker eye. Their solution – a VR experience that combines medical research with gameplay mechanics – is now rolling out to eye clinics around the USA.

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 edge of VR design with a closer look at our VR Best Practices Guidelines.

Jody Medich is a UX designer and researcher who believes that the next giant leap in technology involves devices and interfaces that can “speak human.” In this essay, she asks how a 3D user interface could transform how we explore and understand content – by giving our brains a whole new dimension of working memory.