Startups formerly known as Ultrahaptics and Leap Motion appear to be going in separate directions again after 5 years together ended in significant layoffs.
A Sky News report cites “sources” as saying the company is halving its workforce and plans to “look for a buyer for its hand-tracking business”. Developer Max Thomas posted on X that he was looking for work after “the US team at Ultraleap was laid off.”
An Ultraleap spokesperson gave the following statement to Sky News:
“Since the company was founded in 2019, Ultraleap has gained international recognition as the leading innovator in haptic and airborne hand tracking technologies.
During this period, customer needs and behaviors have constantly evolved and we need to adapt our strategy to reflect these changes.
After much consideration, we have made the difficult decision to restructure some of our divisions and reduce the size of our team.
This decision was not made lightly, but it is necessary for us to adapt our business to better serve the market and our customers.
We deeply appreciate the hard work and dedication of everyone who has contributed to building Ultraleap.”
We’ve reached out to Ultraleap to try and get a figure on how many people have been released and will update this article if we get more information.
In May 2019, Ultrahaptics acquired Leap Motion to bring together their complementary ideas – an ultrasound-produced haptic effect with industry-leading hand tracking. It’s now June 2024, and the Apple Vision Pro and Meta Quest push the two ends of the standalone VR headset market with hand tracking that doesn’t use Leap Motion. And while few have ever felt the ultrasonic haptic effect of Ultrahaptics, Leap Motion’s hand tracking is used by many smaller manufacturers to provide a powerful hand-tracked user interface without the overhead of another platform.
Ultraleap Hyperion makes better hand tracking better
Ultraleap released Hyperion, the latest version of its industry leading hand tracking software.
Just last week, Ultraleap had a booth at the Augmented World Expo in Long Beach, where representatives demonstrated Ray-Ban Meta glasses with an added sensor intended for all-day gesture recognition. As members of the Khronos Group responsible for OpenXR, Ultraleap also helped shape the industry-standard implementation of hand tracking support that allows apps built with it to “run on any compatible device.”
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