05/22/2012
The mobile revolution has prompted not only new forms of computers but also new ways to interact with them.
Apple brought touchscreens to the masses. Google introduced voice-based and image-based search in Android and iOS, and is presently working on augmented reality glasses. Nintendo reinvented video game interaction with its Wii controller and then Microsoft upped the ante with its Kinect gesture tracking system, first for Xbox and more recently for PCs.
On Monday, Leap Motion made its bid to change the way people interact with traditional desktop devices. The company announced what it calls "The Leap," a motion control peripheral that will allow computer users to manipulate traditional desktop computer UI elements--windows, folders, and icons--and interact with applications, using gestures made in the air.
The $70 device, slated to ship "this winter," looks like a candy bar with white edges, topped by black glass screen, as least as the prototype is depicted. Leap Motion says it is now accepting a limited number of pre-orders for its device.
Like Microsoft's Kinect, the Leap device emits infrared light that reflects off objects in the four-cubic foot visible to its sensors. The Leap device then interprets that data to direct the movement of objects on the screen of the connected computer. Where Kinect has been designed to capture large movements to facilitate the playing of Xbox games, the Leap excels at reading minute movements. It was designed to be accurate to within 1/100 of a millimeter in order to be useful for applications that require precision, such as 3D-modeling.
