[ANSWERED] ​Leap Motion - futures?

[timeg]

With over 10 years of experience using Leap Motion controllers and Isadora (under MacOS) I am deeply invested and am wondering about paths forward for the future.

At present it would seem the last Mac drivers are V2.3.1 which will not run on Mac OS after 11.6.1

It would appear Ultra Leap has stopped supporting MacOS which is unfortunate and though it may change in the future I need to be planning now for the future.

QUESTION? Will Isadora for Windows allow the Leap Motion actor to connect and operate via the Ultraleap Windows Gemini V5.7.2 drivers?      I have no Windows experience with Leap

I am currently running the Leap Motion actor on an old MacMini running an old OS and then sending comms signals to a couple of M series Macs running Isadora. 

This all works just fine for the time being, but I am trying to find long term and hopefully more elegant strategies. 

Any insights from the floor would be greatly appreciated.

:-)~

[Woland]

@timeg said:

It would appear Ultra Leap has stopped supporting MacOS which is unfortunate and though it may change in the future I need to be planning now for the future.

We have asked them about this and sadly they told us that they have no plans to start supporting macOS again.

@timeg said

QUESTION? Will Isadora for Windows allow the Leap Motion actor to connect and operate via the Ultraleap Windows Gemini V5.7.2 drivers?

Usually, we keep features symmetrical between macOS and Windows, so I think it is unlikely that we'd update the Leap Motion actor only on Windows.

[timeg]

@woland Many  thanks for your reply which informs my forward planning. I will seek other ways of getting the Leap Motion to control Isadora and report back at some point in the future if and when i find a long term solution.

[Woland]

@timeg said:

I will seek other ways of getting the Leap Motion to control Isadora and report back at some point in the future if and when i find a long term solution.

There's always the option of keeping an old computer "frozen in time" (i.e. don't update the operating system) and using that computer to interface with the Leap Motion, then sending that data via OSC over a local area network from the old computer to another, newer computer running the most recent version of Isadora. This workflow should theoretically let you use the Leap Motion forever.

[DusX]

@timeg

I would be open to creating something like https://github.com/rwebber/kin... but for the Leap Motion. I am sure I could get such a thing working for the PC, where the tracking data could be shared via OSC.
If you think that seems like a reasonable solution, and you are willing to run a PC for this data, I'm sure others may also find it useful, so I could start on it after or next big release ;)

[Woland]

@dusx said:

you are willing to run a PC for this data

@timeg It's worth noting that this PC wouldn't need to be super powerful either, so it doesn't need to be an expensive or large one. You could likely get away with using a mini PC or NUC for this.

[Eva]

Hi:)

Thank you for posting, I have some of the same worries:) so far I am running leap motion from my Mac Studio in Rosetta-mode, and this is working fine, but I know, that some day, it probably wont work anymore. I will be interested equally though in work-arounds.

Cheers Eva

[timeg]

thanks to @Woland and @DusX 

I have already been running with the "frozen in time' option for some time. Very effectively I would add.

After yesterdays announcement from Ultraleap of the new Leap Motion 2 and forthcoming support once again (due in July I believe), it would seem there is a new path forward.

I have already pre-ordered my LMC2.

It is unclear at this stage whether the new MacOS Gemini drivers will be backwards compatible with LMC1.

This all begs backwards and indeed forwards compatibility with the IZZ driver?

All will unfold in time no doubt.

[Woland]

@timeg said:

After yesterdays announcement from Ultraleap of the new Leap Motion 2 and forthcoming support once again (due in July I believe), it would seem there is a new path forward.

 Yes, it's very exciting. I can't confirm yet whether or not we'll support the Leap Motion 2, but I sincerely hope we have the time to add this feature.