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  • Project Northstar
  • Code of Conduct
  • Glossary
  • Getting Started!
    • About
    • FAQ
    • Helpful Content
  • ✨Northstar Next
    • ✨Introduction
    • ✨Assembly Guide
    • 📸Sensor and Tracking Guide
  • Software
    • Getting Started with Software
    • Esky
    • Monado
    • SteamVR
    • Unity
  • Calibration
    • Getting Started with Calibration
      • Calibration Stand Bill of Materials
    • 3D Optical Calibration
      • Bending Reality: North Star’s Calibration System
    • 2D Optical Calibration
    • Calibration Stand Assembly Guide
  • Electronics
    • Electronics
    • Firmware
    • Schematics
  • Previous Headset Designs
    • Combine Reality Deck X
      • Deck X Assembly Guide
      • Deck X Bill of Materials
    • Headgear Assembly Guide
    • Northstar Release 3
      • Release 3 Bill of Materials
      • Release 3 Assembly Guide
      • Changelog
    • Northstar Release 1
      • Initial Release 3D Printing Reference
      • Initial Release Assembly Guide
    • FAQ Mechanical
  • FAQ & Vendors
    • FAQ Ahead.IO Kits
  • Community Links
    • Discord Community
    • #ProjectNorthStar On Twitter
    • Reddit Community
    • Leap Motion Forums
  • Leap Motion Blogs
    • Leap Motion North Star Blog
    • Unveiling Project North Star
    • Our Journey to the North Star
    • Project North Star is Now Open Source
    • Project North Star: Mechanical Update 1
    • Project North Star: Mechanical and Calibration Update 3.1
    • Project North Star: Mechanical Update 3
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  • Welcome to the Community Built Documentation for Project North Star!
  • Variations

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Project Northstar

The future of spatial computing deserves to be open.

NextCode of Conduct

Last updated 1 year ago

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Welcome to the for Project North Star!

We envision a future where the physical and virtual worlds blends together into a single magical experience. At the heart of this experience is hand tracking, which unlocks interactions uniquely suited to virtual and augmented reality. To explore the boundaries of interactive design in AR, we created and open sourced Project North Star, which drove us to push beyond the limitations of existing systems." -Leap Motion

Project North Star is an open-source Augmented Reality headset originally designed by LeapMotion (now UltraLeap) in June 2018. The project has had many variations since its inception, by both UltraLeap and the open-source community. Some of the variations are documented and linked to here but visit the discord server for more to-the-moment information. The headset is almost entirely 3D printable, with a handful of components like reflectors, circuit boards, cables, sensors, and screws that need to be sourced separately.

Project North Star at MIT Reality Hack 2020, photo credit:

There's also a large community of Northstar developers and builders on Discord, you can join the server and share your build, ask questions, or get help with your projects by

For a more detailed look into the project, checkout our General FAQ, or Mechanical pages.

Variations

Project North Star has seen its fair share of revisions and updates since the original open-source files were released. To clear up any ambiguity from the outset, Release 1 was an internal release. Release 2, the first public open-source release (sometimes referred to as the initial release), was in 2018. Release 3 came in 2019 and improved on the mechanical design in many ways. The Deck X innovated on this and provided an integrated circuit board to reduce cables from the headset to just two, (USB 3 / mini-DP), by combining USB devices into a custom-built USB hub + Arduino module. As shown from the table below, the newly released Northstar Next is probably what new users will want to start with, it has an emphasis on modularity and affordability.

Active

06 JUN 2023

CombineReality

XR50 / T261

SIR 170

BoboVR

Custom

Active

21 AUG 2020

CombineReality

T261

LMC / SIR 170

3.1

3.2

Release 3-2

In Dev.

TBD

Leap Motion

T265

LMC

3.2

3.2

Outdated

03 APR 2019

Leap Motion

T265

LMC

3.1

3.1

Outdated

23 JAN 2019

Leap Motion

T265

LMC

3

3

Release 2

Outdated

6 JUN 2018

Leap Motion

N/A

LMC

1

1

Previous Headset Designs
Software
LogoJoin the Project North Star Discord Server!Discord
LogoProject North StarUltraleap (Leap Motion) Community Forums
Northstar Next
Deck X
Release 3-1
Release 3
Community Built Documentation
Matthew Daiter
joining the server
FAQ