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Woz & Jobs 2.0: Leap Motion's Holtz & Buckwald

Posted by Soulskill on from the not-until-one-has-an-awesome-Woz-beard dept.

theodp writes "Over at Popular Science, Tom Foste takes a look at the $79 Leap Motion controller and inventors David Holz and Michael Buckwald, best friends since they were fifth graders in Florida. Potential applications for the device are many, as proof-of-concept demos ranging from controlling Windows 8 (video) to driving JPL's Athlete Rover (video) show. 'If we're successful and build something that is a fundamentally better way to interact with a computer, there are essentially an unlimited number of use cases,' Buckwald says. 'Eventually, anything that has a computer could be controlled with it—every laptop, every desktop, every smartphone, every tablet, every TV, every surgical station, every robot, potentially even a Leap in every car.' And even if 'it's got some growing pains to experience,' writes Ars Technica's Lee Hutchinson, 'it's cool-it's extremely cool. It's not yet a game-changing interface device, but it could be.'"

4 of 86 comments (clear)

  1. Douglas Engelbart by icebike · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Seems to me these guys would be the new Douglas Engelbart, inventor of the mouse or E.A. Johnson, and Hurst, inventors of the Touchscreen rather than likening them to the twin gods of Woz & Jobs, who really invented nothing.

    If it works we may eventually see the demise of keyboards and mice.

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    Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.
    1. Re:Douglas Engelbart by Omestes · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Except you can buy mice and touchscreens... You can't buy a Leap Motion.

      I was very excited to get my hands on one of these... But that interest has pretty much completely died now since they moved back an actual release indefinitely.

      Sure, there are pre-orders, which are a terrible idea, and the brief window when I could have got a beta dev version (which is useless to people like me, actual users).

      They are vaporware, until I can actually go to a store, hand someone $80, and take it home.

      I really wish that either this, or the Kinect for Windows were real options. I don't see gestures replacing my mouse and keyboard, but they would be a nice augment. I'd love being able to sit back, and pause videos with a gesture, or browse the internet without my mouse... but... I have a feeling this day is still far away.

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      A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government. -edward abbey
  2. Re:No Comparison by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I think that was Commodore. You know, computers for the masses, not the classes? Apple has always been overpriced. So much for the little guy.

  3. Not gonna work by 50000BTU_barbecue · · Score: 3, Insightful

    except for a few times a day. You can't hold your arm up all day like that. This lesson keeps getting learned every few years or so, going all the way back to the first light pen on the SAGE. It was called Gorilla Arm back then.

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    Mostly random stuff.