What the ManoMotion SDK´s are all about and which version I should use!
This blog is for Unity developers on iOS and Android smartphones exploring awesome new AR solutions, using hand tracking and gesture control. Manomotion’s technology is all about helping developers create AR solutions, using hand tracking, based on built in camera solutions (no extra hardware needed).
Our focus is to balance a powerful feature set with optimal processing and power requirements. We have divided up our offering in three tiers:
- Manomotion SDK Community Edition
This version is free and today we have several hundred active community members developing and trying out cool AR apps with it.
- Manomotion SDK PRO
This version is more advanced and we charge a fee per month. If your ambition is to develop advanced applications with full skeleton hand tracking and hand gestures, we would recommend this version. When buying the SDK PRO you can also buy limited support packages
- Manomotion SDK Custom Solution
This is our managed services offering. Here we scope the project together with you and develop what you need (usually based on the ManoMotion SDK PRO).
The use case
The primary use case Manomotion today supports is the use of the rear camera of the smartphone. See pictures below. We are also doing technology integration projects together with HMD vendors and different industrial applications.
The mobile phone use case. Great for virtual try ons, basic game applications and other fun interactions
The wearable use case. Track hand using HMD and future AR solutions
Understanding the AR landscape and what is going on – ARKit, ARCore, AR Foundation and Mediapipe
Apple, Facebook, Google, Microsoft and other mega players are driving different AR initiatives. To help you as a developer there are different toolkits to help. Probably most notable are ARKit and ARCore respectively.
Both AR Kit and ARCore provide you with the capabilities to understand the environment including walls, planes, surfaces, sense the different depth levels existing in the environment and even generate object segmentation including the hand also known as positional tracking. Unity facilitates the usage of these kits by creating a wrapper known as AR Foundations simplifying the deployment of both technologies on the different platforms.
Since ML (Machine Learning) is a central part of most AR solutions, Google provides cross-platform, customizable ML solutions for live and streaming media – Google Mediapipe (an open source project). Google Media Pipe has today basic face detection support and supports object tracking, including hand tracking to some extent (among many other capabilities).
This is a great tool to explore the new technology with a base for building AR solutions for the future.
If you want, however, a dedicated, robust and focused hand tracking and gesture analysis product, we honestly believe you should try out the Manomotion SDK. The reasons for that are:
- The hand tracking and gesture analysis features existing today in our products are well supported and with new features being added in each new release, the product continually improves as you expect with a commercial software.
- The supporting material we offer
- Access to a dedicated community and its members and and an opportunity to get and provide early/instant feedback
- Possibility to get support and feature development help from our very experienced engineers
- Our technology road map! (we got some cool stuff up our sleeves ; -)
To conclude, cool AR applications do not only require understanding of the real world and augmenting it, it also requires different forms of intuitive user input. Hand tracking and gesture analysis is an important part of creating that intuitive and fantastic experience we are all looking for!
More detailed information on the three SDK offerings for mobile use cases:
SDK Community Edition (CE)
The SDK Community Edition (CE) is an open invitation to everyone who wants to get started in the AR space. This fits well with developers looking to develop basic hand tracking solutions. The hand will be tracked using a box (not skeleton) around the hand and will provide an additional point of interest in the case the user is doing Pinch hand poses. Apart from basic hand tracking, this SDK provides a defined set of gestures (link) which enables the creation of basic AR experiences such as menu selection, drag & drop using the Pinch gesture or other gestures such as Grab & Release. Additionally, SDK CE supports AR Foundation (Unity) making it easier to develop augmented solutions.
Practical aspect of SDK CE: To get started, you sign up on www.manomotion.com/products. Upon signing up, you will get access to our product page where you can download SDK CE, access developer support material and an invitation to join our developer Discord channel.
Technical aspects of SDK CE: Uses rear camera. Supports both portrait and landscape modes. Tracks only one hand (left or right). Runs on Unity-Android and Unity-iOS.
Support aspects of SDK CE: Manomotion does not provide a formal support to the SDK CE. We do, however, provide invitations to our community. The community is continuously growing and innovating on how to use our technology. Being part of the community gives access as a developer to other developers with more experience using our products and the possibility to test early versions of our product. The documentation is given in different formats, once the user is logged in, a detailed description of the SDK and links to video tutorials.
Commercial aspect of SDK CE: You can download, develop and publish applications using the SDK CE for free. But, if you hit + 10k downloads we will contact you and discuss possible commercial licensing terms. If your application is free, we will not charge you. Also, after 2 years, you will need to renew your license.
SDK PRO
SDK is our primary commercial offering for iOS and Android developers exploring more advanced smartphone based AR applications. This is our most advanced and skeleton based solution that also tracks well in 3D. Additionally, SDK Pro provides gesture recognition which becomes more advanced and enables more accurate hand interactions through the skeleton, allowing the visualizations to be more realistic.
Practical aspect of SDK PRO: On https://www.manomotion.com/products/ you sign up for SDK PRO. You need to have a corporate email address and provide basic information about your company. We will then e-mail you information on how you start paying for your subscription. Upon receiving payment, Manomotion will give you access to the product download page and developer resources available for SDK PRO customers. Included in SDK PRO is also an onboarding session with our team. We will contact you and to an introduction of the SDK, better understand your needs and help you with relevant pointers to get started. Also you will receive information on how to purchase support packages, if needed.
Technical aspects of SDK PRO: Uses rear camera. Supports both portrait and landscape mods. Tracks only one hand (left or right). Runs on Unity-Android and Unity-iOS.
Support aspects of SDK PRO: Manomotion provides support packages. Each package is 5h and you can buy up to 5 packages (if you need more – see SDK Custom Solution). As an SDK PRO customer you also have access to our community and all available developer documentation, code examples and video tutorials.
Commercial aspects of SDK PRO: The SDK PRO offering is a subscription based offering where you pay €199 per month. This fee is per solution you develop and the price includes 10 000 downloads of the solution you chose to publish. When you hit + 10k downloads contact us for licensing terms, and for a further discussion in order to find the best solution for your needs.
SDK Custom Solutions
SDK Custom Solutions is our commercial offering if you are looking at integrating hand tracking into a product or solution based on the Android or iOS mobile platforms. This might require integration work and sometimes even feature development, depending on the objective. To do this we simply define a joint project and then we execute.
Practical aspect of SDK Custom Solution: On www.manomotion.com/products you request contact for SDK Custom Solution. We will then contact you. First step is to do a joint feasibility analysis of your request. Based on this, Manomotion will provide a proposal of how to proceed. Most SDK Custom Solution projects are based on the SDK PRO mixed with development work done by some of our most talented developers.
Technical aspects of SDK Custom Solution: Same as SDK PRO.
Support aspects of SDK Custom Solution: Per project
Commercial aspect of SDK PRO: Per project quote.
To get your hands on the Manomotion SDK CE, or buy the SDK PRO, click here: https://www.manomotion.com/products/
If you are looking for a more extensive project or if you are an OEM business that is looking to integrate hand tracking and gesture control in your offering and on other platforms than an Android or iOS based phone or tablet – please use this form: https://www.manomotion.com/contact/ and we will get back to you.
Join us in making an awesome AR solution using hand tracking!
Yeray, Head of Products at ManoMotion
