The startups formerly known as Ultrahaptics and Leap Motion appear to be heading in different directions, with significant layoffs after five years of working together. According to a report by Sky News, the company is cutting its workforce by half and planning to seek a buyer for its hand-tracking business .
Developer Max Thomas posted on X that he is looking for a job after the US team at Ultraleap was laid off.
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An Ultraleap spokesperson gave the following statement to Sky News:
“Since its founding in 2019, Ultraleap has earned international recognition as a leading innovator in haptic and air-hand tracking technologies. During this time, customer needs and behaviors have continuously evolved, and we have had to adapt our strategy to reflect these changes. After much consideration, we have made the difficult decision to restructure some of our departments and reduce the size of our team. This decision was not made lightly, but is necessary to adapt our business and better serve our market and customers. We deeply appreciate the hard work and dedication of everyone who has contributed to building Ultraleap.”
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We have reached out to Ultraleap to get an exact number of people laid off and will update the article once we receive more information.
In May 2019, Ultrahaptics acquired Leap Motion to merge their complementary technologies – a haptic effect produced through ultrasound and industry-leading hand tracking.
It's now June 2024, and the Apple Vision Pro and Meta Quest target two different ends of the standalone VR headset with hand-tracking, which doesn't use Leap Motion technology.
While few have experienced Ultrahaptics' ultrasonic haptic technology, Leap Motion's hand tracking is widely used by smaller manufacturers to offer a powerful hand-tracking user interface without the need for another platform.
Just last week, Ultraleap had a booth at the Augmented World Expo in Long Beach, where representatives showed off Meta’s Ray-Ban with an additional sensor intended for all-day gesture recognition. As a member of the Khronos, responsible for OpenXR, Ultraleap also helped shape hand-tracking support into the industry standard, allowing apps built with it to “run on any compatible device.”
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Source: uploadvr
