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The Leap Motion Controller is Sort of Like a Super Kinect (Video)

Posted by Roblimo on from the touching-nothing-but-a-picture-magically-appears-on-the-screen dept.

What the Leap Motion product (they only have one right now) does is allow you to control your computer with gestures. We're not talking about just jumping around, but "painting" on the screen with your fingers (or even chopsticks) with fine enough control that Autodesk and other drawing-orientd software vendors are working to make applications compatible with the Leap Motion Controller. And game developers? You bet! Lots of them -- and this is for a device that's not even supposed to start shipping until May 13. But, says CEO Michael Buckwald, they already have "hundreds of thousands of pre-orders," so it looks like they are developing a large market for developers (over 12,000 are in the Leap Motion developer program -- out of 50,000 who applied) so it's possible that Leap Motion could become a pretty big deal. (You can see the Leap Motion Controller in action at the end of the video.)

4 of 108 comments (clear)

  1. Looks promising. by P-niiice · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Seems like a huge missed opportunity for Microsoft.

    1. Re:Looks promising. by NoNonAlphaCharsHere · · Score: 5, Funny

      It could explain why all the people one the Microsoft Surface commercials look like they're having grand mal seizures.

    2. Re:Looks promising. by Jane+Q.+Public · · Score: 4, Informative

      "How do you have something like the Kinect and not have patents all over something related that basically would prevent this, or at least cause it to have to license numerous patents? Missed opportunity indeed."

      I am in the Leap developer program and I have one. But I am not an expert on the Kinect. From what I understand, the Kinect uses cameras and visible light to do passive motion detection. The Leap works very differently. It uses active infrared signals and a pair of infrared detectors to do its magic. Unlike the Kinect, its active area is limited to just above the desktop. But also unlike Kinect, they claim precision down to a few microns. I haven't tried to measure the accuracy of mine, but it's pretty darned accurate.

      Also, using the SDK, you can (A) detect all 10 fingers, (B) the position of each finger, (C) the direction each finger is pointing, (D) the position and orientation of the palm, and (E) the relative curvature of the palm (e.g., the diameter of an imaginary ball in your hand).

      It's pretty impressive. The question is how well it will be integrated into software. Like any "alternative" controller, implementation in an individual application might be sad or might be great. There is no way to tell in advance, and I am sure we will see some of each.

  2. Re:I would probably buy one, by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    https://forums.leapmotion.com/showthread.php?17-Linux-SDK-relase-extimate/page5

    "I just wanted to drop in and give you a little update. Earlier [yesterday], we released our first early build of the Linux SDK to developers on the developer portal. We will be working closely with devs to help make the Linux SDK as robust as possible, and we're looking forward to the feedback"