Ever wonder how cool it would be to manipulate your computer by waving your hands or snapping your fingers? Leap Motion has created the Leap Motion Controller that allows you to do just that. The Leap Motion Sensor is a small device that plugs into your computer via the USB connecter and along with the included software allows you to control your computer using hand gestures instead of your mouse. The Leap Motion Controller accomplishes all this by the use of two small cameras and several infrared LEDs, which tracks the user hand and finger motions all to within a hundredth of a millimeter according to their website. Although primarily developed for 3-D modeling Leap Motion says it sees the potential to apply the technology to many other applications on a computer such as gaming, art and medical data to name a few. The Leap Motion Sensor is compatible with the PC and Mac operating systems and can be pre-ordered for $69.99 on the Leap Motions web site. They’ve also formed a partnership with ASUS to supply the controller bundled with a number of high-end notebooks and All-In-One (AiO) PCs later this year.
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I pre-ordered one of these the other day after my boss’s boss’s boss told me he had pre-ordered one. 🙂
Let us know how it works out I would be interested in how accurate and responsive it is…
I preordered one two months ago. It will be interesting to see how it works.
Now get me the cool holographic heads-up display for my inner Tony Stark…looks like an awesome idea…may pre-order one myself…
How about that whole minority report set up…
Have been giving some thoughts to the Leap Motion controller (LMC) and we realized that Leap is ahead of the current computing environment much like Xerox was when it first introduced the mouse/GUI to a command line world.
The power of mouse/GUI was not fully appreciated for command line interactions just as the LMC is not in a 2D GUI environment. UNTIL we can see objects on a true 3D screen, gesture controllers like the LMC will always be “overkill.”
However, hand gestures will be the natural and dominant way to interact when we have fully immersive 3D graphic displays/environments/holodecks.
@RainyDayInterns Very true. I canceled my order for the Leap. I decided I really didn’t need to spend the money on something I knew I wouldn’t be using after the first few minutes trying it out. 🙂