AirTouch vs Motion Gestures: Product or SDK?

Here is the short answer. Motion Gestures and AirTouch agree on the most important thing: gesture control belongs in software on standard cameras, not in proprietary sensors. The difference is what you receive. Motion Gestures sells an SDK, a component that OEM engineers compile into their own firmware and apps. AirTouch ships as a finished product that installs in minutes and drives the software you already run, and is also licensed by OEMs. If you have an embedded engineering team building a device from scratch, both belong on your list. If you want gesture control working this week, only one of them is that kind of thing.

What is Motion Gestures?

Motion Gestures is a Waterloo, Canada software company offering camera, touch, and motion-sensor gesture recognition SDKs. Its camera product tracks a 21-joint hand skeleton on standard RGB cameras and runs remarkably light, down to embedded Arm Cortex-A35 class chips, which has earned it listings in partner programs from STMicroelectronics, Synopsys, and others. It targets OEMs in automotive, appliances, signage, and robotics. The company is real and active, though small: roughly $10M raised since 2017, with its most recent visible funding in mid-2024 and little public news since.

What is AirTouch?

AirTouch is patented gesture control and hand tracking software from Neural Lab. It reads hands through any standard RGB camera and maps gestures to mouse, keyboard, and touch input at the operating system level, so every existing app becomes a touchless interface with zero integration. Through our partnership with Orbbec, it also takes advantage of 3D depth sensing and IR cameras when a deployment calls for them. Windows, Linux, and Android today, macOS on the way, roughly 50ms latency, patented intent detection for crowded spaces, and per device per month pricing with a free trial. OEMs license the same engine for their products.

How do AirTouch and Motion Gestures differ?

• What you receive. Motion Gestures delivers libraries and plugins your engineers integrate. AirTouch delivers working gesture control out of the box, plus OEM licensing when you want it inside your product.

• App compatibility. An SDK controls the app it is compiled into. AirTouch controls every app on the machine, because it speaks OS-level input.

• Intent in crowds. Tracking a skeleton is step one. Knowing which person's gestures to obey on a public screen is the hard part, and AirTouch's patented intent detection is built for exactly that.

• Sensor range and choice. Both are camera-limited rather than sensor-limited, a shared advantage of the software approach. AirTouch deployments run at 20 feet and beyond on standard cameras, and the Orbbec partnership adds 3D depth and IR camera options without changing software.

• Sterile and soiled environments. AirTouch is trained for gloved hands including surgical glove colors, works through protective glass, and is deployed in clinical settings today. We have not seen equivalent public validation for sterile workflows from SDK vendors.

• Evaluation friction. Their model is a quote and an integration project. Ours is a five-minute install and a free trial.

Where does Motion Gestures win?

Deep embedded work. If you are building a microwave, a car cabin module, or a device on a low-power chip where every megabyte matters, a compact SDK designed for Cortex-A class hardware is the right shape of tool, and their chip-vendor partnerships are real credibility. AirTouch targets computers and devices with an operating system; below that line, an embedded SDK is the honest recommendation.

Where does AirTouch win?

Everything above that line. Kiosks, conference rooms, clinical workstations, signage, and OEM products built on Windows, Linux, or Android get finished, supported, continuously updated gesture control with no engineering project at all. Your existing content is compatible on day one, your camera options span webcams to Orbbec 3D depth and IR models, and the hand tracking engine improves with every release. That is the difference between a component and a shipping product.

Which should you choose?

For OEM and medical evaluations we will run AirTouch on your hardware, gloves and glass included: book a demo. Or skip the meeting entirely: start a free trial and test it on a webcam today.

Related: gesture control and hand tracking software, what is a touchless interface, OEM gesture recognition, and AirTouch vs Ultraleap.