But the nine startups that pitched at the AXLR8R demo day in San Francisco Friday were proof that there are a lot of niche applications brewing that make better use of Leap Motion’s abilities than gaming or consuming news. It can be a hands-free tool for surgeons or a translation tool for sign language users.

“We always view our role as a platform enabling people, enabling developers to build something that would not have been possible before,” Leap Motion CEO Michael Buckwald said at the event.

The question is whether it can compete with technologies like Google Glass and Meta’s augmented reality glasses, both of which could be used for many of the same applications. However, some of the startups made the case for how Leap Motion can add capabilities to platforms like Oculus Rift that don’t already have motion tracking.

Adrian Plata (Content Marketing Manager at metaio GmbH): “What exactly is being shown in the video?”

Mirko Compagno (Augmented Reality architect at THE ROUND Italy): “This video is a demo of a home power panel. If someone points his/her own mobile device to the power panel, some augmented reality labels will be disclosed. Labels indicate how to use the different switches. A virtual assistant is positioned near the boiler switch. The virtual assistant explains how to service a boiler. As it is a demo, we created only a video for boiler maintenance. Otherwise, our idea is to associate a virtual assistant’s audio and video to explain each switch.”

Adrian Plata: “What is this application for? What are you trying to accomplish with it?”

Mirko Compagno: ”A company has required this AR application demo. The basic idea is to offer an augmented reality useful home maintenance guide to the end user.”

Adrian Plata: "How long have you used Metaio technology? Are there any other projects using our tech that you can share?"

Mirko Compagno: “We have been using Metaio for about 4 years. Here are some examples;

A Celebration of Galileo’s 450th Birthday:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2p8Q9Fr1Q8E&list=PL94B33ADA7DE2F75F

performed at the event “WELCOMING CITIES, The new cities: smart and eco-friendly (http://www.welcomingcities.it/)

Celebrating Giuseppe Verdi’s 200th Birthday:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYlTkqi_VZs&index=4&list=PL94B33ADA7DE2F75F

Augmented reality for Newspapers:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkSWmQ30tDw&index=8&list=PL94B33ADA7DE2F75F

Adrian Plata: “I browsed through your website briefly and noticed you guys feature another tool. Why are you using Metaio for this project as opposed them?

Mirko Compagno: At the beginning, we made use of other tools for some projects. However, Metaio can offer more opportunities for a developer, and this is the reason why Metaio is now the primary technology for our AR projects. 

click here to watch “Using Augmented Reality Virtual Assistant” video. 

m.compagno@theround.it

With wearable computing technology becoming more and more mainstream, it would be wise for companies to ride on this wave if they want to last in the future. Metaio CTO Peter Meier shared, “We strive for seamless wearable AR. We want to go beyond the limitations of form factors to deliver truly ground-breaking experiences.”

The Metaio Augmented Realit SDK is currently serving a whopping 80,000 developers, and has been equipped with optical, totally transparent Augmented Reality rendering, which opens up the door for users to check out AR content as though it was being presented directly in front of them.

Service technicians will be able to visualize the digital maintenance information that is attached to systems as though it were there in real life, and it also enables consumers to visualize product information regardless of where they are.

The potential for gaming is there as well, since game developers will be able to work in a more immersive environment that will merge both the physical and virtual worlds. 

Birdly è anche completo di un ventilatore che, oltre a riprodurre il vento, serve a far sentire gli odori di ciò che si trova "al di sotto" dell’uomo volante. Il simulatore non è nato per essere un gioco, o una periferica di qualche tipo; intende invece essere un’installazione artistica, e difficilmente lo si potrà vedere al di fuori di Zurigo.

Virtuix Omni è un vero e proprio prodigio della tecnica che vi permetterà di immergervi nel pieno senso della parola nell’ambiente di gioco. Entrando nel dispositivo potrete correre, girare, saltare, camminare e sviluppare un’interazione il più possibile naturale con gli altri giocatori, gli oggetti, e i personaggi che animano il gioco. Si tratta in sostanza di un’interfaccia per il movimento naturale costituita da una base dotata di 40 sensori di movimento, un’imbragatura, scarpe ad hoc, e cosa super importante di un Oculus Rift.

Una volta entrati non vi resta che schiacciare play e iniziare la vostra sessione di gioco.

Virtuix Omni sarà disponibile già dal mese di settembre ad un prezzo di vendita di 499 dollari, scarpe incluse. Se non potete aspettare settembre, potete intanto iniziare a ordinarlo, le prevendite sono aperte. Il prezzo include anche il software necessario per configurare il dispositivo e un minigioco creato da Virtuix per dimostrare le enormi potenzialità di Virtuix Omni. Dal pacchetto sono esclusi l’Oculus Rift, le tasse (ed eventuali dazi doganali) e le spese di spedizione.