A new optical controller in the purest Leap Motion style has appeared on Kickstarter. Nimble Sense is a camera that mounts on the Oculus Rift (DK1 or DK2) and captures the movement of our hands. Thanks to its tracking software, Nimble Sense offers a very low latency that allows us to integrate both hands into our virtual reality experiences.
The detection angle of Nimble Sense is about 110º and uses a technology called time-of-flight, consisting of a photonic mixing device and a powerful but safe laser that capture a 3D point cloud at the same time as an infrared one of the scene. These captures are interpreted by its tracking software to identify the position, identity and angles of each of the fingers, data that is exposed through an API that allows developers to integrate them into their applications to interact with virtual objects. In the following video we can see how it works with Technolust, Spectre and Ethereon.
Prices depend on the accessories chosen, although the cheapest option includes the sensor and the mount for the DK2 for $99. You have it perfectly summarized in this table.
The campaign ends on December 13 and the goal of $62,500 seems reasonable and achievable, since they already have about $20,000. It is still a difficult device to recommend to an end user, since we do not know whether or not Oculus plans to integrate something similar in the commercial version, but it is a very interesting option for a developer who wants to already integrate hand tracking in their application.
