The much talked about Leap Motion device is available to be shipped to customers today. The Leap Motion is a device that allows you to control your computer using gestures with only your hands, And at just $79, it created quite some anticipation for its release. While the reviews so far don’t match the hype, the potential is still definitely there. As reported by pcworld.com:
“It’s hard not to be impressed with Leap Motion on a basic level. Here’s a motion controller that’s more precise than Microsoft’s Kinect, for a fraction of the cost, in a package small enough to sit discretely on a desk. Although Leap doesn’t have a video camera like Kinect, it’s able to detect the motion of individual fingers.”
However, there are some criticisms of the practical use of the applications, particularly Leap Motion’s ‘Touchless’ app:
“Leap’s own Touchless mouse control app, use a 3D vertical plane to register input. Move your finger beyond that plane, and it’s as if you’re clicking with a mouse. This works terribly in practice because you have no physical feedback for when your finger has crossed the plane. In Painter, it’s too difficult to control when you’re actually drawing, and in Touchless, it’s too easy to accidentally click on things.
“Touchless, for that matter, is somewhat disappointing as a mouse supplement. While it’d be nice to use the app for leaning back and reading through Web pages, scrolling can be tough to initiate in an accurate and predicable way. The app also doesn’t support multiple monitors.”
But it’s not all bad for Leap Motion. Although they may not currently live up to a year’s worth of hype, there’s definitely HUGE up side for the device if executed right. According to techcrunch.com:
“What Leap Motion can do now (scrolling and paging through apps and virtual environments, completing next and back functions) is a far cry from what it will likely eventually be able to do, however. The Leap Motion and devices like it are a long bet, and I think the companies behind them understand this; we’ll see a bit of what they’re capable of shown off in tech demos and current generation software, but what they’re offering is an entirely new paradigm for thinking about digital interaction. That means it’ll take time before developers wrap their head around what kind of software experience fits this mould.”
Hopefully, Leap Motion has generated enough buzz to stay around as more developers begin to build out the right apps to match the groundbreaking technology—because it sure does look promising.
