To complement his VR experience, Florian Mauer built a controller that could perhaps best be described as a “hand bracelet.”

As virtual reality applications begin to be implemented, one challenge will be finding an interface device, or combination of them that are unobtrusive, yet allow for versatile input. Mauer decided on a design inspired by the gravity control bracelet from the movie “Ender’s Game.” It can be worn similar to how a pistol is held (illustrated here with a virtual pistol), and reportedly doesn’t get in the way when using a keyboard or mouse–at least before the button was added.

The 3D-printed gadget features an IMU, Arduino Pro Micro, as well as a couple buttons for in-game actions. This helps the Leap Motion controller used here to recognize gestures that would be difficult for its camera to pick up otherwise.

In the 2013 adaptation of Ender’s Game, Harrison Ford’s character slips a metallic device over his hand to control gravity in the training room. This scene inspired me as I’ve been trying to imagine VR controllers that can be used alongside mouse+keyboards. The controller used by Ford seemed convenient to put on, offer a lot of finger freedom, and probably allow for throwing VR objects without falling off.

You can see more information on this promising project on Mauer’s website here.

The Leap Motion controller is a rather impressive little sensor bar that is capable of generating a massive 3D point cloud and recognizing hands and fingers to allow for gesture control based computing. It’s been out for a few years now but we haven’t seen many hackers playing with it. [Anwaarullah] has messed around with it before, but when it came time to submit something for India’s first Maker Faire, he decided to try doing an actual project with it.

Checking out the latest Leap Motion SDK, [Anwaarullah] realized many improvements had been made and he’d have to rewrite some of his original code to reflect the changes. This time around he’s opted to use the ESP8266 WiFi module instead of a Bluetooth one. He printed off a Raptor hand (from the wonderful folks at e-NABLE) and hooked it up with some RC servos to give him a nice robotic hand to control.

The actual code being sent to the Arduino is pretty simple. The Leap Motion SDK does all the complex stuff, and in the end, just sends a serial command of how many fingers it sees to the Arduino in order to control the hand.

For more info about the project, you can check out his original foray into Leap Motion Arduino control here. And for more examples of Leap Motion controlled things using Arduinos, why not control a cute animatronic desk lamp?