Qualcomm and Leap Motion: use real life hands in VR

Qualcomm announced its Snapdragon 835 VRDK program alongside the news that it had teamed with Leap Motion, a company that has been on the edge of hand tracking technology.

The partnership between Qualcomm and Leap Motion is an interesting one, that could reshape the control methods used in VR: as the companies are demonstrating Qualcomm's own positional tracking technology, with Leap Motion's hand tracking tech. This partnership could lead to "natural human computer interaction" for standalone Snapdragon 835-powered VR headsets, and as Qualcomm puts it: "sets a new standard for mobile VR content development".

Tim Leland, VP of Product Management with Qualcomm, said: "As we deliver the new Snapdragon mobile platform for greater immersion with untethered virtual reality HMDs, natural user interfaces like hand movements will help consumers more intuitively interact with VR content, therefore we're delighted to be working closely with a VR technology leader like Leap Motion. The Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 was designed to combine six degrees of positional tracking, high VR frame rates, immersive audio and enhanced 3D graphics with real-time rendering in a compact, stand-alone headset for the ultimate VR experience".

Qualcomm will be leveraging the very best of its new Snapdragon 835 processor, with Leap Motion's "cutting-edge" hand tracking technology, something that is capable of rendering the precise movement of your hands and fingers, all at low latency.

Qualcomm will be showing this technology off during both GDC 2017 and MWC 2017 next week.