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The Leap: Gesture Control Like Kinect, But Cheaper and Higher Resolution

Posted by samzenpus on from the all-the-better-to-track-you-with dept.

MrSeb writes "It seems Minority Report-style computer interfaces might arrive a whole lot sooner than we expected: A new USB device, called The Leap, creates an 8-cubic-feet bubble of 'interaction space,' which detects your hand gestures down to an accuracy of 0.01 millimeters — about 200 times more accurate than 'existing touch-free products and technologies,' such as your smartphone's touchscreen or Microsoft Kinect. Unfortunately Leap Motion (the company behind the Leap) is being very tight-lipped about the technology being used, but it's probably some kind of infrared LIDAR (radar, but using light), or perhaps a high-resolution version of Kinect (which only uses a 640x480 camera). It's available to pre-order for $70 — and developers can register for a free device + SDK."

14 of 192 comments (clear)

  1. What's wrong with keyboards? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Why do we need all these fucking gestures and shit? I guess most people still haven't figured out how to TYPE.

    1. Re:What's wrong with keyboards? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

      There are plenty of environments where keyboards aren't ideal or even possible... think about a hospital OR (viewing PACS data) or media-based presentation. Such setups could also be helpful in other areas where sanitary rules would make touch-less devices a much better solution, like food processing plants and restaurants, etc.

      Of course what's wrong with only 640K anyway? I guess people just haven't learn to code properly.

    2. Re:What's wrong with keyboards? by alexborges · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Missing the point: it is not about computers, its about a wall mounted intelligent tv with automatic voice-command recognition that can turn your coffee on or off, download your tv episodes ...etc.

      The future for computers has always been ubiquity, invisibility and support for daily shit.

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      NO SIG
    3. Re:What's wrong with keyboards? by Cinder6 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      It's never been about need. We don't need the vast majority of technology out there. All you really need is access to food and water, a nice cave to shelter you from the elements, and a way to keep warm. Technology--especially tech such as this--is supposed to make things easier and/or improve quality of life.

      "We don't need that" is rarely a good argument. Instead, you should investigate whether the proposed solution will make things better or worse, or have no impact (in which case you don't have to waste resources on it).

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      If you can't convince them, convict them.
    4. Re:What's wrong with keyboards? by Defenestrar · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I'd be interested in having the (cooled down) hot water lines in my house purged when I walk into the bathroom in the morning, or the kitchen preparing and cooking my dinner to be ready when my car tells it I'll be home. For that matter, I'd be interested in reading a book all the way home while my car navigated, accident free, through smoothly flowing optimized traffic. Waving at my computer to make 3-D spatial adjustments instead of using a planar pointer just sounds like a good idea.

    5. Re:What's wrong with keyboards? by cupantae · · Score: 4, Insightful

      "For a new technology to be successful, it must replace all usage cases of older technology"
        -- /. Anonymous Cowards and Moderators (apparently)

      In my current setup, I'd say I use my keyboard ~90% of the time and my mouse only about 10%.
      Listen: I'm still glad I have the mouse.

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    6. Re:What's wrong with keyboards? by b0bby · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Maybe she can move her head, or just her whole hand; there could be any number of ways to use this when you can't move a mouse. ALS is horrible, anything which can make life easier for her is a good thing.

    7. Re:What's wrong with keyboards? by ron_ivi · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Why do we need all these fucking gestures and shit? I guess most people still haven't figured out how to TYPE.

      That is exactly *why* we need gesture recognition.

      People communicate with each other -- and with their pets, and even with pre-verbal babies -- with gestures and not with keyboards.

      I often use this as an example of why we continue to need better compute power --- until I can give my computer a dirty look or an obscene gesture to make it stop doing something I don't like, we'll continue to have a need for better human-computer interfaces.

      This is *exactly* a step in the right direction -- where the computer learns how humans communicate -- instead of making humans have to learn something convenient for computers (pushing buttons / typing on keyboards).

    8. Re:What's wrong with keyboards? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      So you're saying why innovate new technology when there's an existing technology right now that's cheap enough to just burn up and throw away?

      You work for the oil industry, don't you?

  2. Re:Fishy... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    add to that the leap itself is supposed to be that little box but is somehow able to scan both sides of your hand at the same time and see stacked objects (the video shows hands passing over each other for example) and it kinda looks staged...

  3. now imagine a flick of the fingers by Chirs · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I would love to be able to lean back, rest my elbows on my chair armrest, forearms vertical, and control stuff by moving my fingers around. Much less strain on the wrists.,since the hands would be directly over them and in a neutral position.

  4. Re:stock pump by Missing.Matter · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I agree... they're releasing absolutely zero tangible information about the product while accepting pre-orders and developer applications. Seems like they want to bring their investors some numbers on how many people are interested. It remains to be seen if this $70 price is even realistic... and for that matter exactly what kind of technology this actually is.

  5. Pre-order ... for early next year... maybe by thesandbender · · Score: 3, Insightful

    $70 pre-order for "expected" delivery next year. Article short on details, long on promises. A website where many of the pages don't function. I think I'm better off buying a 2-3 shares of Facebook.

  6. Aw crap.... by mark-t · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I was really excited to see this kind of technology until I saw the following on their website:

    Leap Motion technology is a breakthrough in computer interaction, using a patented mathematical approach to 3D....

    Patented? Mathematical? It's bad enough that companies are patenting software that is just obscured math, but now they are effing patenting mathematics itself????

    This has so many levels of wrong written all over it, I can't begin to explain...

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    File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'