Leap Motion: the future is here

Forums › Gadgets, robotics, home automation, electronics (including wearables) › Leap Motion: the future is here

scottjames84

94 posts

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#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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#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.

scottjames84

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#628931 22-May-2012 13:22

I preordered one since they won't charge my card util the day it ships.

Kyanar

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#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.

gzt

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#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.

BuffyNZ

241 posts

Master Geek

#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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gzt

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#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.

Jarno

270 posts

Ultimate Geek

#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!

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freitasm

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#861966 19-Jul-2013 08:09

What do you know? One year after this topic was created and the Leap Motion is about to ship to customers.

I have a review unit here now, freshly delivered via FedEx...

The press embargo ends on the 22nd US time (the day it starts shipping), and that's when I am allowed to post my review. I will be back in this topic to answer questions on that day.

TwoSeven

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#862107 19-Jul-2013 13:08

From an Human Computer Interaction point of view these devices are quite interesting. I am waiting for my production unit to turn up - as pointed out should be in the next day or so. The SDK is pretty simple so it shouldn't be hard to write a small app and put it through its paces.

I am more interesting in seeing if it will work on Windows Server as this is a limitation of the MS Kinect SDK (tied to a specific OS version).

The main criteria for me (for anyone perhaps doing a review) is fine-ness of tracking resolution (finger-tips for example) and responsive ness (tracking lag). Also, applicability such as usefulness for disabled people or for being able to work as a HID for operating a hands free device.

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#862131 19-Jul-2013 13:43

freitasm:
The press embargo ends on the 22nd US time (the day it starts shipping), and that's when I am allowed to post my review. I will be back in this topic to answer questions on that day.

Why do they need an embargo to ensure reviews only escape on the day orders ship? Are they that worried that their product is crap, and reviews will out this fact? What happened to standing behind your work?

Yeah, I know its an industry norm. But I have this thought every time I run into embargoes. Surely if they build cool stuff that works well, they should welcome early reviews.

TwoSeven

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#862189 19-Jul-2013 15:22

I would expect they are doing what any other reasonable company would do and co-ordinate its media communication effort with its sales effort. No point in telling people [average consumers] about a product that isn't available for them to buy.

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freitasm

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#864285 23-Jul-2013 14:28

The Leap Motion is now shipping... Posted my Leap Motion review and here is wife playing a basic game in our HTPC to train a bit of the movements:

langers1972

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#864321 23-Jul-2013 15:07

Will be interesting to see some of the devices with the technology embedded, I know HP and Asus have signed deals. Could be a game changer in smartphones

petes117

371 posts

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#878408 14-Aug-2013 22:06

I sold mine on Trademe today, I was very disappointed with it because I was expecting a complete mouse replacement. Did I set the bar too high? Maybe. But now I can see that these won't catch on until the entire operating system catches up with it. Ohh so that's why you never see Iron Man using Windows or OSX!
I'd love to see a fully 3d-enabled Windows9 integrated with this (or more likely, Kinect)

The basic functions of the device are lacking. For example, holding my hand as steady as I possibly can during the Orientation still results in the digital representation of my hand flickering between 3-5 fingers displayed.
It's even worse when you have a light in the room. Sunlight from the window (depending on the time of day) or lightbulbs at night put the device in "robust" mode which I found to make the jittery-ness stronger. You pretty much have to use the thing in a completely darkened room, save for the monitor's light.

That jittery-ness affects the performance of every app. I tried several, like Touchless, which seemed to move the "touch area" depending on where my hand entered the Leap's field of view. Just when I though I'd figured it out, it moves the touch area and I have to imagine where it is all over again. Infuriating.

GameWave had more potential. This recognises hand gestures, in theory useful for gaming as well as desktop navigation. It performed much better, and felt like a mouse input (when the room lighting was right - or else it gets the jitters), though I could not get the hang of "clicking" with the gesture. Maybe with a lot of practice and further updates from the dev I could have found it useful.
I'd be seriously impressed if anyone managed to get it to work well enough for Half-Life 2 like in the Leap promo video. Was that even using this app?

I'd have liked to have tried it with 3ds Max but Autodesk only has an app for the latest version of Maya. (Yep, you're out of luck if you've got Maya 2013!)

Some of the other apps fare better. Leap Motion seems better suited to simple tasks like swiping around in Cut the Rope or floating through Google Earth.

I guess it feels like the Leap Motion is more a promise of what's to come, rather than the revolution I'd hoped it would be. It has so much potential, but it's more like a small step than a leap.

Well that's my rant over. I felt I needed to justify my abandoning ship! Anyone else feeling short-changed or am I too impatient?

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#878510 15-Aug-2013 08:01

Pete, you are about right there... A bit disappointed with so much potential, great hardware some very cool software but they should have at least have a very good OS interface implemented from the go.

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