AirTouch vs Ultraleap: Which Gesture Control Fits?

Here is the short answer. Ultraleap is a hardware plus SDK approach: a dedicated infrared sensor tracks your hands with excellent fidelity, and developers integrate that tracking into apps built for it. AirTouch is a software approach: our patented models read hands through any standard camera and convert gestures into the mouse, keyboard, and touch input every app already understands. If you are building a bespoke XR experience around a headset, Ultraleap is a capable tool. If you want gesture control on the hardware and software you already have, with your choice of camera from a plain webcam to an Orbbec 3D depth camera, that is the problem AirTouch was built to solve.

Both are real technologies made by teams who care about hand tracking. The right choice depends on what you are building, so let's take the comparison seriously.

What is Ultraleap?

Ultraleap carries the Leap Motion heritage, a name many developers know fondly. Its hardware, the Leap Motion Controller 2, is a small stereo infrared module you mount to a monitor, kiosk, or headset. Paired with Ultraleap's tracking software, it delivers precise, low-latency skeletal tracking of both hands, and because it brings its own infrared illumination, it keeps working in total darkness. Developers build against its SDK, with strong support for Unity and Unreal, which makes it a natural fit for custom XR and VR projects designed around it.

One recent fact belongs in any honest evaluation: in 2024, Ultraleap went through a major restructuring, reportedly laying off about half its staff and selling its hand tracking business while retaining its haptics work. The hardware remains available through distributors. What that means for long-term roadmap and support is a question worth asking in your procurement process, and we would say that even if we were not the ones writing this page.

What is AirTouch?

AirTouch is patented gesture control and hand tracking software from Neural Lab. It runs on any standard RGB camera: your laptop webcam, the video bar in your conference room, the camera already in your kiosk or product. Through our partnership with Orbbec, it also takes advantage of 3D depth sensing and IR cameras when an environment calls for them, so one piece of software spans everything from a webcam to a depth rig. Instead of asking developers to integrate an SDK, AirTouch works at the operating system level, mapping gestures to the mouse, keyboard, and touch events your existing software already accepts, which turns any screen into a touchless interface. Windows, Linux, and Android today, macOS on the way, with roughly 50ms latency and patented intent detection that locks onto the person deliberately controlling the screen and filters out everyone else. It ships today in hospitals, showrooms, and partner products including displays from Sony's spatial reality ecosystem.

How do AirTouch and Ultraleap differ?

• Hardware. Ultraleap requires its own infrared module on every device you deploy. AirTouch gives you the choice: the RGB camera your device almost certainly already has, or an Orbbec 3D depth or IR camera through our partnership when the environment demands more. The sensor serves the deployment instead of defining it.

• App compatibility. Ultraleap works with software built or adapted for it through its SDK. AirTouch works with the apps you already run, because to the app it is just mouse, keyboard, and touch input. Nothing is ported.

• Sensor range. Ultraleap's module is designed for close interaction, roughly within arm's reach of the sensor. AirTouch's range is limited by the camera, not the software: a standard webcam covers a room, and deployments run at 20 feet and beyond.

• Sterile and soiled environments. A sensor mounted at the point of interaction is one more surface in the field. AirTouch's camera watches from outside the sterile field, tracks gloved hands including surgical glove colors, and works through protective glass, so nothing new gets touched or disinfected.

• Cost at scale. Ultraleap's cost is a sensor plus mounting plus integration work, multiplied by every unit. AirTouch starts at zero added hardware on per device per month pricing with a free trial, and you add an Orbbec camera only where it earns its place.

• Crowds and intent. In public spaces, tracking every hand is the easy part; knowing which hand to obey is the hard part. AirTouch's patented intent detection identifies the primary actor and locks on until they finish. This is the difference between a demo and a kiosk that survives a trade show floor.

• Lighting. Ultraleap's infrared works in complete darkness. AirTouch is trained for imperfect lighting on standard cameras, within reason, and pairs with IR-capable Orbbec cameras for dark environments, so darkness becomes a camera choice rather than a dealbreaker.

• Platforms. AirTouch runs across Windows, Linux, and Android at the OS level. Ultraleap's reach depends on where its SDK and integrations are supported.

Where does Ultraleap win?

An honest list, because there is one. If you are building a fully custom 3D or VR experience in Unity or Unreal and want finely tuned skeletal hand data as a design material, Ultraleap's SDK was made for exactly that. If you are mounting hand tracking on an XR headset, its module has years of history there; headsets are Ultraleap's home turf and outside AirTouch's target. And in total darkness where no IR-capable camera is an option, its built-in illumination still has physics on its side.

Where does AirTouch win?

Everywhere the problem is deployment rather than prototype. Every app you own becomes a gesture interface on day one, with no SDK for your team or your vendors to adopt. Hardware freedom: start on the camera already in the room, scale to Orbbec 3D depth or IR cameras without changing software. Scale economics that let you roll out to a second room, a tenth kiosk, or an entire product line without multiplying proprietary hardware. Crowd-proof intent detection for public spaces. Range that reaches the back of the room instead of the edge of a sensor bubble. And an actively shipping roadmap: AirTouch is in production with partners today, covered by Engadget and others, and updated continuously. That is the difference between a science project and a shipping product.

Which should you choose?

The grid version, scenario by scenario:

For medical and OEM evaluations we will test against your exact environment, gloves, glass, and all: book a demo. For everything else, the fastest way to decide is also the cheapest. AirTouch installs in about five minutes on the camera in front of you. Start a free trial and run your own comparison.

Related: gesture control and hand tracking software, what is a touchless interface, the touchless kiosk, and OEM gesture recognition.