[4eyes] "Leap" Forward

[Matthew Turk]

Seems like vaporware at this point. Pre-orders are "estimated" to ship in
December or January (7-8 months from now). The video is created for PR
(looks like most of it is faked). There are no technical details on the web
site - just statements about how revolutionary it is, and nonsense
statements like the one calling it "two hundred times more accurate than any
product currently on the market." The Developers link on their web site
doesn't work (at least yesterday and right now).

 

In one story, here's what the reporter saw: "In a demo, Holz pointed at a
laptop screen and traced the word "hello" in the air with his index finger
while keeping his hand still and making only minimal movements with his
finger. His gestures were processed and displayed simultaneously on the
computer screen." It's a long way from that to the stuff shown in the PR
video.

 

Call me a skeptic, but I think the hype is much more advanced than the
technology here. (I'll be happy to be shown otherwise in due time.)

 

                Matthew

 

From: ilab-users-bounces at lists.cs.ucsb.edu
[mailto:ilab-users-bounces at lists.cs.ucsb.edu] On Behalf Of Basak Alper
Sent: Tuesday, May 22, 2012 3:00 AM
To: 4EyesLab
Subject: [4eyes] "Leap" Forward

 

Anybody has seen this?

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_d6KuiuteIA
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_d6KuiuteIA&feature=youtube_gdata_player>
&feature=youtube_gdata_player

 

 0leapmotion.jpg
<http://lh3.ggpht.com/qdPpoBLPno1Gy3usYOG4s9mavG3pP6VWO2FrmIIhUqXGgQxpdPOj3d
COwiWJm27iZpKJZvzdhbCdECnV19Yl5XF1dAU1qfHc_g=s288> 

This morning, a San-Francisco-based company called Leap Motion
<http://leapmotion.com/>  released the demo video for their eponymous
gesture control interface, which appears to be shockingly accurate: 

It's more accurate than a mouse, as reliable as a keyboard and more
sensitive than a touchscreen.... This isn't a game system that roughly maps
your hand movements. The Leap technology is 200 times more accurate than
anything else on the market -- at any price point. Just about the size of a
flash drive, the Leap can distinguish your individual fingers and track your
movements down to a 1/100th of a millimeter.

The system can distinguish thumbs from figures and tell when you're holding
a pencil in your hand. Check it out:

The drawing app looks freaking awesome, and imagine being able to do CAD
with your bare hands. That would take some clever tool/interface design on
the part of the software developers, but if the Leap is really as easy to
use as the manufacturers claim-"Plug the LEAP into a USB port. Load the Leap
Motion software. Do a quick wave to calibrate. That's it"-you can be assured
said developers will get on it.

Outside of personal computing, I'd love to see the Leap applied to ATMs, so
I never had to touch those filthy, smudged and sneezed-upon screens again.

The Leap is currently available for pre-order
<http://live.leapmotion.com/pre-order-the-leap/>  at $69.99 a pop.

Sent from my iPhone


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