We can also visualize Leap Motion data in RViz. There is a ROS package called leap_client (https://github.com/qboticslabs/leap_client).

You can install this package by setting the following environment variable in ~/.bashrc:

export LEAPSDK=$LEAPSDK:$HOME/LeapSDK

Note that when we add new variables in ~/.bashrc, you may need to open a new Terminal or type bash into the existing Terminal.

Now, we can clone the code in a ROS workspace and build the package using catkin_make. Let's play around with this package:

1. To launch the nodes, we have to start LeapControlPanel:

$ sudo LeapControlPanel

2. Then, start the ROS Leap Motion driver launch file:

$ roslaunch leap_motion sensor_sender.launch  

3. Now launch the leap_client launch file to start the visualization nodes. This node will subscribe to the leap_motion driver and convert it into visualization markers in RViz:

$ roslaunch leap_client leap_client.launch

4. Now, you can open RViz using the following command, and select the leap_client/launch/leap_client.rviz configuration file to visualize the markers properly:

$ rosrun rviz rviz

If you load the leap_client.rviz configuration, you may get hand data like the following (you have to put your hand over the Leap Motion controller):

Now that we have learned how to visualize Leap Motion data in RViz, we can now create a teleoperation node using the Leap Motion controller.