Skip to footer

Leap Motion: Forget mouse and keyboard. Control a PC with hand gestures.

Leap Motion Controller lets people swipe, pinch, and tap the air to control their computers.

|
YouTube
A screenshot of the Leap Motion Controller promo video shows off the small size of the device.
  • By Aimee Ortiz

Every year, it seems that technology is inching humanity closer to a world like that of the Jetsons. Just today, Leap Motion announced a launch date for its long-awaited motion controller. The tiny gadget hooks up to computers (Macs or PCs) and enables the user to control the computer using only hands gestures. The tiny device will set consumers back $80.

According to the company’s blog, the Leap Motion Controller is no bigger than your iPod and 200 times more accurate than any other gesture controller currently on the market. TGDaily reports that this means the Leap Motion Controller, due out in May, will be able to capture gestures as small as 1/100  of a millimeter at 290 frames per second.

The inspiration for the Leap Motion Controller came from the founders’ frustration with 3-D modeling.

“Molding clay took 10 seconds in real life but 30 minutes with a computer. The mouse and keyboard were simply getting in the way,” says the company blog. "Since available technology couldn't solve our problems, we created the Leap Motion controller.”

When the Leap Motion Controller is plugged into a USB port, the user can perform a variety of hand signals. Swipe to flip a page, pinch-to-zoom, and even use their hands to play games.

Leap Motion also announced an application market that will offer apps specifically designed for the Leap Motion Controller. Autodesk, Corel Painter, Cut the Rope, and a Wreck-it Ralph racing game will already be available for purchase from the store.

However, as with any new technology, developers must be on board in order to make the hardware and the software work. Airspace won’t have nearly as many apps as the Apple App Store or the Google Play marketplace, at least not for now.

The Atlantic’s Alexis C. Madrigal got a chance to try the Leap Motion Controller.

“I've played with a Leap system and I found it fun and interesting. I'm not sure it will replace your touchscreen or laptop input devices, but at $79, it seems worth trying out,” writes Mr. Madrigal.

The Leap Motion Controller will be available to users through BestBuy. Last month, CNET reported that BestBuy had acquired the exclusive launch rights to the Leap Motion Controller. Those who pre-ordered the gadget before today will receive it for the original asking price of $70 and they will be receiving it on May 13.

BestBuy.com and BestBuy stores will begin to sell the Leap Motion Controller on May 18 and 19, respectively.

For more tech news, follow Aimee on Twitter, @aimee_ortiz 

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to Leap Motion: Forget mouse and keyboard. Control a PC with hand gestures.
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Technology/Horizons/2013/0227/Leap-Motion-Forget-mouse-and-keyboard.-Control-a-PC-with-hand-gestures
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe