ManoMotion announced that it integrated Apple’s ARKit into the next version of the ManoMotion SDK, which lets developers utilize the company’s gesture control technology within ARKit-derived augmented reality experiences.
In early June, ManoMotion revealed its camera-based hand gesture tracking technology that enables fine finger tracking and gesture control with the use of the standard 2D camera that you would find on most smartphones. ManoMotion’s technology can recognize 27 degrees of freedom (27DoF), up from 17DoF in June, which the company said allows it to interpret upwards of 2 million hand gestures.
ManoMotion said its technology could be used with VR HMDs that don’t restrict the camera’s view, but it also enabled developers to build Unity-based AR applications for your smartphone that include gesture-based interactions.
Smartphone-based augmented reality recently got a big boost in popularity. Days after ManoMotion revealed its technology, Apple revealed the first details of the company’s ARKit API. With ARKit, developers can create impressive augmented reality experiences and applications that work on iOS devices. And last week, Google released the ARCore SDK that brings similar capability to Android devices.
Apple's and Google's APIs offer camera-based SLAM tracking technology to interpret where walls and objects are in the environment and help anchor digital assets to the real world. Neither the ARKit nor ARCore SDKs offer hand tracking support, though. Both companies expect you to use the touchscreen on your device to interact with the digital assets in your real-world environment. ManoMotion has a better solution.
“Up until now, there has been a very painful limitation to the current state of AR technology - the inability to interact intuitively in depth with augmented objects in 3D space,” said Daniel Carlman, co-founder, and CEO of ManoMotion. “Introducing gesture control to the ARKit, and being the first in the market to show proof of this, for that matter, is a tremendous milestone for us. We’re eager to see how developers create and potentially redefine interaction in Augmented Reality!”
The next version of ManoMotion’s SDK, which should be available “in the coming weeks,” includes integration with Apple’s ARKit API, which would allow you to use hand gestures instead of the touchscreen. ManoMotion said the first release with ARKit included would work with Unity iOS only, but subsequent updates would include Native iOS support. ManoMotion also noted that ARCore integration is coming soon.
For more information about ManoMotion’s SDK and how to use it with your ARKit application, visit www.manomotion.com/get-started.
