Abstract
Hand tracking has become an integral feature of recent generations of immersive virtual reality head-mounted displays. With the widespread adoption of this feature, hardware engineers and software developers are faced with an exciting array of opportunities and a number of challenges, mostly in relation to the human user. In this article, I outline what I see as the main possibilities for hand tracking to add value to immersive virtual reality as well as some of the potential challenges in the context of the psychology and neuroscience of the human user. It is hoped that this paper serves as a roadmap for the development of best practices in the field for the development of subsequent generations of hand tracking and virtual reality technologies.
Highlights
Immersive virtual reality systems have recently seen a huge growth due to reductions in hardware costs and a wealth of software use cases
A step change in hand tracking occurred with the Leap Motion Tracker, a small encapsulated infra-red emitter and optical camera developed with the goal of having people interacting with desktop machines by gesturing at the screen
Significant improvements in software, presumably through a clever use of inverse kinematics, along with a free softwaredevelopment kit and a strong user base in the Unity and Unreal Game Engine communities led to a proliferation of accessible hand tracking addons and experiences tailor-made for Immersive virtual reality (iVR)
Summary
Hand tracking has become an integral feature of recent generations of immersive virtual reality head-mounted displays. With the widespread adoption of this feature, hardware engineers and software developers are faced with an exciting array of opportunities and a number of challenges, mostly in relation to the human user. I outline what I see as the main possibilities for hand tracking to add value to immersive virtual reality as well as some of the potential challenges in the context of the psychology and neuroscience of the human user. It is hoped that this paper serves as a roadmap for the development of best practices in the field for the development of subsequent generations of hand tracking and virtual reality technologies. Specialty section: This article was submitted to Virtual Reality and Human Behaviour, a section of the journal Frontiers in Virtual Reality
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