David and Michael

The future of open source augmented reality just got easier to build. Since our last major release, we’ve streamlined Project North Star even further, including improvements to the calibration system and a simplified optics assembly that 3D prints in half the time

Over the past few months we’ve hit several major milestones in the development of Project North Star. At the same time, hardware hackers have built their own versions of the AR headset, with new prototypes appearing in Tokyo and New York

Project North Star is a compelling glimpse into the future of AR interaction and an exciting engineering challenge, with wide-FOV displays and optics that demanded a whole new calibration and distortion system. To top it all off, North Star’s optics create a stereo-divergent off-axis distortion that can’t be modelled accurately with conventional radial polynomials. North Star sets a high bar for accuracy and performance, since it must be maintained across a much wider field of view than any previous augmented reality headset. The best way to model any optical system is by raytracing – the process of tracing the path rays of light travel from the light source, through the optical system, to the eye.[1]

Today we’re excited to share the latest major design update for the Leap Motion North Star headset. North Star Release 3 consolidates several months of research and insight into a new set of 3D files and drawings