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psych892's avatar
psych892
Honored Guest
11 years ago

Which hand input devices are ready to purchase?

Hi! I’m trying to find out which hand input devices are ready to buy and use with Oculus Rift DK2. I’m not looking for anything fancy, just a basic glove or other type of device (like a camera) that allows you to track the position of the hand and gestures and display it in the VR. Searching online I’ve found many devices, but the majority of them are under development, and the other part doesn’t offer integration or resources to work with Unreal Engine 4, which is the software we are currently using. Any advice on this matter will be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

8 Replies

  • MikeF's avatar
    MikeF
    Trustee
    11 years ago
    As far as i know there are no solutions currently available besides the razer hydra. The stem system is over a year late and probably wont be released before CV1 so i dont have much hope in that being widely adopted by developers.

    I've been after a decent solution since dk1 and havent found one so i'm betting on touch
  • andrewtek's avatar
    andrewtek
    Member
    11 years ago
    Hi psych892,

    Are you familiar with Leap Motion?
    https://www.leapmotion.com/product/vr

    I have their VR Dev Kit. I think it might do what you want, especially since it integrates with Unreal Engine 4. I am using mine mostly as a temporary placeholder for the Oculus Touch controller. Unfortunately, I don't think the Leap Motion controller is ready for VR with non-developers. My leap motion controller has issues with jitter (virtual hand movements that do not align with actual hand position) that can be frustrating when your game requires hand/finger accuracy.

    Good Luck!
  • psych892's avatar
    psych892
    Honored Guest
    11 years ago
    Hi! Yes, I've been searching all day and the Leap motion seems the only option right now, since other devices like the Razer Hydra or the Control VR, are not currently on sale, according to their websites. However, reading several online reviews on the functioning of Leap Motion with Oculus Rift, I noticed that some users complain that the integration is not very good and the demos do not work properly some times. If the performance is really bad, this would be a problem for the use we want to give to this device (research and demonstrations for classes). Also, we are not experts in VR development, so probably we couldn't make significant alterations to the product or software if necessary. My questions would be, does the performance and accuracy are really that bad? And, any of the demos available online work? Thanks a lot for your help!
  • andrewtek's avatar
    andrewtek
    Member
    11 years ago
    Hi psych892,

    For me, the performance/accuracy/jitter is not ideal. However, it is not so bad that it renders the device useless for development. I have heard that others have had much better results. Luckily, Alex Colgan from Leap Motion is a member of the forums. Here is a thread he posted semi-recently about VR development:
    viewtopic.php?f=25&t=23368&p=271145#p271145

    Here is a link to a bunch of articles he has written on the subject of VR, Computer Vision, Hand Tracking, etc:
    http://blog.leapmotion.com/author/alex/

    He is really cool and even offered to help troubleshoot the jitter issues I was experiencing with the Leap Motion. Unfortunately, I have been too busy to take him up on it.
  • psych892's avatar
    psych892
    Honored Guest
    11 years ago
    Hi andrewtek, thank you for your help, I guess Leap Motion it’s the best choice right now. It’s good to know that we can ask for help in the forum in case we have any problems. Thanks!
  • alexcolgan's avatar
    alexcolgan
    Protege
    11 years ago
    "andrewtek" wrote:
    He is really cool and even offered to help troubleshoot the jitter issues I was experiencing with the Leap Motion. Unfortunately, I have been too busy to take him up on it.

    Aww shucks :D Hope you get some time on your calendar soon.

    "psych892" wrote:
    However, reading several online reviews on the functioning of Leap Motion with Oculus Rift, I noticed that some users complain that the integration is not very good and the demos do not work properly some times. If the performance is really bad, this would be a problem for the use we want to give to this device (research and demonstrations for classes). Also, we are not experts in VR development, so probably we couldn't make significant alterations to the product or software if necessary. My questions would be, does the performance and accuracy are really that bad? And, any of the demos available online work?

    Some demos are better than others, and there is some configuration involved in getting the best possible experience. From a setup point of view, the VR tracking user experience is definitely not yet at a consumer level, but we're actually working on some fairly significant changes for an upcoming release that should make it easier to reach and maintain really strong tracking in VR mode. There are also some recent resource and integration releases (such as Image Hands) that have dramatically improved usability, and our Unreal integration has some updates on the horizon.

    If you do decide to get a device, I'd be happy to follow up with you personally if you run into any issues. I'm also interested in hearing about your research and classroom work.