Developers who have received units in October or November have a “Revision 4” Leap device. Developers who receive units in December-January will get a “Revision 5” or “Revision 6” device, and the final production version will be “Revision 7”.
Module Size Comparisons
In terms of size, Rev 4 is the largest module we have ever made. It's dimensions are 92 mm x 30 mm x 20 mm. The reason for this was a purposefully conservative circuit layout design which allowed us to quickly iterate and debug the hardware.
The Rev 5 module will be using the final PCB size of 72 mm x 23 mm. The height will still be larger than Rev 6 because we will be using pre-production (off-the-shelf) lenses as seen in Rev 4. The unit will, however, be shipping inside of a aluminum box which will resemble the final product (aside from the much larger height).
The Rev 6 module will feature a custom optical assembly which will reduce the height to less than half the Rev 5 device and Rev 7” will expand the LED/sensor field of view to a much larger 140 degrees.
Known Issues with Revision 4 Devices
Rev 4 has pretty good performance, and full USB 3 connectivity (optional). It does, unfortunately, have a few limitations, most of which we plan on addressing in Rev 5-6 and all of which should be addressed by Rev 7 (mass production).
1. Reduced Range from ~100 centimeters to ~50 cm and reduced accuracy
Estimated Fix Date: Revision 5 devices will feature sensors without this defect. Software upgrades will also lead to improvements in range, field of vision, and accuracy.
Explanation: Due to a limited quantity of image sensors at this time we were forced to use a batch with a known “charge lag” problem. Under normal circumstances this would only affect performance by 10%, but the nature of our LED pulses unexpectedly amplified this problem. The result is that the device is only receiving 1/3 of the light from the LEDs. This leads to reduced range (from a lack of infrared light), and reduced accuracy (from us needing to use a high amount of signal amplification).
2. Reduced Field of View from 140 degrees to 110 degrees.
Estimated Fix Date: Revision 7 devices will feature the final LEDs with a wide field of view. Revision 5 optical sensors will be more light sensitive, so they will work at slightly wider angles.
Explanation: Our final LEDs have a special emitter/optical combo which will not be available until the final production run. Until then, the angle of illumination for the Rev 4-6 unit LEDs will only cover approximately 110 degrees (and performance may degrade at these boundaries).