News

You can now dissect an adorable tabby cat in VR

The new tool shows off Leap Motion’s hand-tracking technology.
The new tool shows off Leap Motion’s hand-tracking technology. The new tool shows off Leap Motion’s hand-tracking technology.

Motion gesture software firm Leap Motion has debuted its latest augmented reality developments with a feature involving a cat and its hand-tracking technology.

The company says the fourth generation of its Orion VR tracking software is much improved, including more accurate shape and size for hands, better finger dexterity and smoother tracking.

To show off the improvements, it has released a range of downloadable demonstrations, including the Cat Explorer.

The explorer is designed to show how VR and motion tracking could work in an educational context, by allowing the user to investigate the cat’s body through hand movements.

Users can swipe over the body to see organs, move the cat around and select which layer of its body they wish to see.

“Instead of learning how to use a controller, Cat Explorer encourages you to learn through play and experimentation,” Leap Motion’s website says.

“With no instructions, previous experience or training, people can dive into the space and quickly understand what to do.”

Other demonstrations include Particles, which lets the user play with tiny balls to explore key rules of physics like attraction, and Paint, which does what it says on the tin.

Owners of an HTC Vive or Oculus Rift can try out the demonstrations by downloading the Leap Motion Orion software.