Leap Motion: the future is here

scottjames84

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Topic # 102776 22-May-2012 12:57
Have you guys seen this? Say goodbye to your mouse and keyboard.Leap represents an entirely new way to interact with your computers. It’s more accurate than a mouse, as reliable as a keyboard and more sensitive than a touchscreen. For the first time, you can control a computer in three dimensions with your natural hand and finger movements. This isn’t a game system that roughly maps your hand movements. The Leap technology is 200 times more accurate than anything else on the market — at any price point. Just about the size of a flash drive, the Leap can distinguish your individual fingers and track your movements down to a 1/100th of a millimeter. This is like day one of the mouse. Except, no one needs an instruction manual for their hands. $70USD pre-order; looks awesome.

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Reply # 628917 22-May-2012 13:11
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Reply # 628923 22-May-2012 13:16
Hopefully they can integrate this really nicely with the OS, might skip on the pre order but will defiantly be buying one of these.

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Reply # 628931 22-May-2012 13:22
I preordered one since they won't charge my card util the day it ships.

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Reply # 628940 22-May-2012 13:32
The bit you didn't mention (which I reckon would be of interest to a forum full of geeks ;)) is that bit about free developer kits being available if you pitch an idea at them that sounds good. So if you're a dev and you'd like to play around with one of these, just pitch an idea via their developer application form and they may send you a free one.

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Reply # 628949 22-May-2012 13:42
scottjames84: This is like day one of the mouse. Except, no one needs an instruction manual for their hands. http://news.cnet.com/8301-11386_3-57437404-76/leap-motion-3d-hands-free-motion-control-unbound/ Remember what you are seeing is a trained and practiced user in action - just like speech to text when it first came out. Seen any hands on reviews by experienced reviewers? Just 'saying. I'm not knocking it - it looks fantastic and will revolutionize UI in ways we cannot yet imagine. No doubt they will get their share of patent trolling. I hope they survive it intact.

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Reply # 628952 22-May-2012 13:48
Pretty cool, but it will not replace a keyboard and mouse. The thing about the keyboard and mouse is the small movements (in general) you need to accomplish common tasks. When typing and using the mouse, you are generally at rest. Your shoulders are not lifting your arms. If I recall correctly, one of the learning outcomes from the Sun Microsystems Starfire project (http://www.asktog.com/starfire/) was how the actors complained about sore arms, sholders etc and how exhausting it was using the interfaces. So while cool, I do not think it will replace a keyboard and mouse interface just yet.

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Reply # 628971 22-May-2012 14:11
The mouse did not replace the commandline. Combining the mouse with UI made a massive big dent in it. I can think of one good use for the product in today's world - the number of times I have to tell someone not to poke my screen while they are indicating something of interest at that position. Well worth US$80 if it fixes that problem.

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Reply # 629060 22-May-2012 16:55
The claimed resolution does not sound credible to me. 10 micron resolution in a half metre cube space? For $US70? Why not target the manufacturing, medical, and science research markets who would be happy to pay orders of magnitude more than that for those capabilities, instead of competing in the low profit margin keyboard and mouse market? This just smells of HYPE HYPE HYPE GIVE US MONEY!