Leap Motion 3D motion-control device changes how we interact with computers

(CBS News) Move over Microsoft Kinect and touch-screen displays. Controlling your computer may soon be done without touching a keyboard, mouse or touch screen - thanks to a little device called the Leap.

Leap Motion, a San Francisco-based motion-control software and hardware company, unveiled a new way to control computers.

Using a USB connection, the device creates four cubic feet of space to interact with a computer. The controls are similar to using a touch screen computer in the air. But what's more impressive is the accuracy that the Leap can measure.

Currently, Microsoft Kinect is the biggest player in the 3D motion-control technology. However, Kinect is not accurate enough to track handwriting. Leap Motion says the Leap is 200 times more sensitive than existing technologies.

"It was this gap between what's easy in the real world but very complicated to do digitally, like molding a piece of clay or creating a 3D model, that inspired us to create the Leap and fundamentally change how people work with their computers," Leap Motion chief executive officer and co-founder Michael Buckwald said in a press release.

"In addition to the Leap for computers, our core software is versatile enough to be embedded in a wide range of devices, including smartphones, tablets, cars and refrigerators. One day 3-D motion control will be in just about every device we interact with, and thanks to the Leap, that day is coming sooner than anyone expected."

The Leap retails for $69.99 and is available for pre-orders now. The device will ship this winter.

[Bojax39]

Great. So basically, once you've taught your kid to wave bye-bye, he'll know how to run computers in the future, right?

Joking. I can see this technology being a real boon to folks.

[hypnotoad72]

Impressive.

The Kinect is very good, but more accuracy is better. Especially with motion games demanding detail from the player (e.g. "bowling"). While it's hard to cheat, more accuracy would make it impossible to cheat.

Granted, the Kinect was not meant for handwriting, and as schools are getting rid of handwriting (there's a news article or two on that from the recent past) then to cite handwriting in this article seems a bit moot.

And, as was said, developers have not flocked to the Kinect, or don't know how to program it. I don't know why that is (and with a competitive paradigm, you'll never see people sharing information to let more prosper, and that's one thing they don't teach you in college, despite their encouraging students to share information with each other... irony is cool, but I digress...).

Also, as I type on this keyboard, I'm trying to think doing this all day on a virtual keyboard using such a getup. If it allows 100WPM speed, it might work... otherwise it might be as unwieldy as anything else that isn't a real tangible keyboard right now...

[Scimajor]

It sounds almost too good to be true.

I think the real challenge is going in getting developers to take advantage of the technology. It looks like integration with Windows 8 seems to be a natural with this device but individual applications are unlikely to have native support for the device.

[RubenDelight]

I personally think that this technology will work just like a mouse or keyboard. In a sense that you will receive a software and driver package which you can program yourself. So you make a certain motion, and you can bind that to for example a right or left click.

I was wary at first, but seeing as how they had a CBS reporter there with them trying it out makes it seem a lot more believable.

[hypnotoad72]

RubenDelight - theoretically, the President could be trying it out as well... you can guess how some people would respond to that. If they won't believe the President, would they believe a media reporter, given the same people constantly call it "the liberal media"?