We’re excited to introduce Hand Tracking, the latest addition to 8th Wall’s suite of Human AR tools for the web. With this new feature, developers, brands, and agencies have the tools they need to build applications that use hands, wrists, and fingers as the canvas for immersive WebAR experiences. 

Develop with an innovative hand model purpose-built for the browser

Hand Tracking allows developers to create WebAR experiences that incorporate the hand, wrist, and fingers all in the same experience. 8th Wall’s proprietary hand model extends just past the palm to include the region where a watch or bracelet would typically rest. Developers can also fine-tune each experience with dozens of attachment points, adaptive hand mesh, and access to the camera pixels for skin smoothing. 

Out of the box, we’ve included an industry-leading 36 attachment points distributed across the fingers, knuckles, wrist, and palm. Each finger contains up to seven attachment points on both the knuckles and the finger joints, letting developers control the position and rotation of items attached to the hand. Having these attachment points already available saves development time and allows developers to quickly anchor objects or experiences to the hand. 


Our adaptive hand mesh dynamically creates a personalized mesh of each user’s hand to enable objects to be appropriately attached to that hand. This feature allows developers to create experiences that automatically scale to fit the user’s approximate hand size and volume. 


Unlock a spectrum of interactive WebAR experiences 

Hand Tracking in WebAR unlocks a wide range of experiences that use real-world physics, occlusion, or hand anchors to open use cases like: 

Immersive Interactions: Use the hand as an interface to AR experiences. With Hand Tracking, audiences can pick up, move, push, and engage with virtual objects almost like they’re really there. This type of interaction can be used to create games, interactive campaigns, or even educational experiences.  


Puppeteering and Hand Masking: Transform the hand to create something entirely new, like a monster-size hand, simple or intricate puppets, or even a foam finger for a sporting event. A user's hands and fingers can then control the movement, providing a new level of immersion or personalization. 


Special Effects: Captivate audiences by making their hands the foundation of extraordinary experiences. Special Effects can be anything from cradling an orb of light in their hands to unleashing laser beams from the tips of their fingers to transforming their thumb into a whimsical lighter at a concert. 

Virtual Try-on: Try out rings, bracelets, and watches that automatically scale to fit the individual. Take it one step further by trying on multiple rings once or even try on a bracelet and ring simultaneously.

These applications are just an example of what's possible with Hand Tracking. As developers build with Hand Tracking, the potential for creating innovative and engaging WebAR experiences is limited to their imagination. 

Enhance experiences with the power of the open web 

What’s more, because Hand Tracking in 8th Wall is built for the browser, developers can enhance their experiences by leveraging the power of the open web. Developers can connect real-time APIs to their experiences to create engaging experiences like having an AR watch that accurately reflects the local time of the user, or incorporating real-time video or textures into the experiences.

This release represents just the start of our Hand Tracking tools and we will continue to iterate on this feature based on the valuable feedback of our developer community. To get your hands on Hand Tracking, clone the or A-Frame sample project or Three.js sample project our project library or read the full release notes in our documentation. 

If you're new to 8th Wall, sign-up for a 14-day free trial to use Hand Tracking in your next project. 

Want help promoting Hand Tracking to potential customers or clients for your next project? Access this pitch deck as a starting point!