Ultraleap and Prophesee enter into a strategic partnership to provide industry-first hand tracking on event sensors for AR devices
PARIS – December 19, 2023 – Ahead of CES, Ultraleap announced today that it’s working with Prophesee to develop the world’s first system using event sensors and hand tracking in augmented reality (AR) devices. This announcement from Ultraleap and Prophesee demonstrates a solution to the unsolved challenge of AR devices that are always on, worn everywhere and require a higher level of interaction.
It leans on Ultraleap’s advanced computer vision and machine learning models together with Prophesee’s breakthrough GenX320 event-based Metavision® sensors, to tackle some of the largest challenges of augmented reality. Power consumption is a fraction of what’s used in existing models, and it enables an always-on AR device that can track user’s hand interactions natively for longer. The new Ultraleap models for event sensors are also more robust to adverse light conditions and have lower latency, empowering a new era of outdoor interaction capabilities. All of these features are provided with increased privacy as event sensors are not frame-based and capture only pixel movement information.
The GenX320 sensors from Prophesee were the first on the market to deliver ‘always on’ capabilities, making them the perfect candidate for Ultraleap to use in their first event-based machine learning vision system for hand tracking in AR. Together, these two technologies will enable robust and immersive interaction methods in a convenient glasses form factor that is required for market adoption in augmented reality.
Tom Carter, CEO and co-founder at Ultraleap said:
“No product currently exists in the market that leverages event sensors and hand tracking for AR. Hand interaction adds impressive value to augmented reality, not only by providing the most natural way to interact, but by expanding functionalities and making the control system more ergonomic. Low power consumption, a high dynamic range, low latency and increased privacy are all critical features to reach the glasses form factor needed for mass adoption. These are the challenges that the Ultraleap and Prophesee teams are addressing with this new product.”
Luca Verre, Co-founder and CEO at Prophesee said:
“The integration of advanced hand tracking features is a pivotal step towards more immersive and interactive experiences in AR. Event-based vision has the proven ability to add more performance and usability improvements to the current state of AR systems which will expand the market potential and capabilities of this application. Our partnership with Ultraleap enhances the overall user experience, unlocking a new era of AR/VR devices that seamlessly blend the virtual and physical worlds, offering unparalleled levels of engagement for entertainment and productivity.”
The initial stage of this AR event-based vision product can be experienced at CES 2024, by appointment only. Please request a meeting through Ultraleap here.
ABOUT ULTRALEAP
Ultraleap’s world-leading hand tracking and mid-air haptic technologies have been developed over 10 years using machine learning and computer vision to allow you to engage with the digital world naturally – without touching surfaces. No touchscreens. No controllers. No keypads. From enhancing 2D screens to developing fully immersive 3D experiences, Ultraleap powers natural, safe and effortless digital interaction in the increasingly connected world.
Ultraleap employs more than 150 people across Europe, North America and Asia. It has become the first to offer the full vertical stack of software and hardware to enable spatial computing for the automotive, out of home, industrial, XR, entertainment and medical sectors.
ABOUT PROPHESEE
Prophesee is the inventor of the world’s most advanced neuromorphic vision systems.
The company developed a breakthrough Event-Based Vision approach to machine vision. This new vision category allows for significant reductions of power, latency and data processing requirements to reveal what was invisible to traditional frame-based sensors until now. Prophesee’s patented Metavision® sensors and algorithms mimic how the human eye and brain work to dramatically improve efficiency in areas such as autonomous vehicles, industrial automation, IoT, mobile and AR/VR.
Prophesee is based in Paris, with local offices in Grenoble, Shanghai, Tokyo and Silicon Valley. The company is driven by a team of more than 100 visionary engineers, holds more than 50 international patents and is backed by leading international equity and corporate investors including 360 Capital Partners, European Investment Bank, iBionext, Inno-Chip, Intel Capital, Renault Group, Robert Bosch Venture Capital, Sinovation, Supernova Invest, Xiaomi.
Learn more: www.prophesee.ai
More information:
(Interviews, photos and videos available on request)
Media Enquiries:
Tessa Urlwin
Ultraleap
+44 (0) 7741 851 070
tessa.urlwin@ultraleap.com
Mike Sottak
Prophesee
+1 650248 9597
mike@wiredislandpr.com
