Leap Motion Review

Greetings, Habrahabr users! Many of us clicked the mouse for 10 years, after that 5 years clicked on the touchpad, and more recently they began to swipe their fingers across the screen.

Soon the time will come when we will wave our hands in front of the screen - contactless control. And the pioneer in this thorny path is Leap Motion, an American development whose sales have already begun all over the world (gray ones, of course). I suggest you take a look at the review of this device and discuss the future ...
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What is Leap Motion?

First, it is not just a small box with engineering developments, it is a whole technology that they plan to implement in all computer and mobile areas in the future. This very technology allows you to recognize and capture the movement of hands or other objects, transforming it into actions on the computer. A small USB device creates an invisible interaction field with a volume of about 227 cubic decimeters. Leap tracks the movement of objects with great accuracy and allows a person to interact with a PC in contactless mode.



These convoluted words “hide” in a small device, resembling a 3G modem in size. Its edging is made of aluminum, on top of where there are sensors, glass is installed, well, and in the lower part is a rubber gasket with the inscription Leap Motion.

Tactile device is very nice and does not look cheap. (And what technology offers!)

Connecting to a computer using a USB-cable, where one of the ends is a combined microUSB + own connector.



Leap Motion comes with two USB cords - one long and one short.

In order to get started with the device, you need to download software for Mac or PC on the site airspace.leapmotion.com .

The AirSpace program itself is something like iTunes: with its own store and a set of programs that can only be run from this environment.



The store has both paid and free apps and games. Some of them only support Windows or Mac.

There are no more than 100 unique applications in the store for this store, but what pleases is Fruit Ninja and Cut the Rope.

There is also a program Touchless, which allows you to control the PC interface (WIndows / Mac) with the help of hands. Without this program, it seems to me, the meaning of buying Leap disappears altogether. In order to understand how the program works - see the review (above).

It is difficult to judge how the device behaves with the software: with each differently. In some programs, hand tracking is perfect, in some - disgusting. I really liked the standard application with a 3D DNA model: it is really convenient and interesting to turn. Cut the Rope is also quite fun to play.

But all this is only a germ in a whole, I hope, era of human-PC interaction. That's what Michael Buckwald, general director of Leap Motion, thinks about this:

We want to create an application that will turn the world around, which will completely change a person’s interaction with the operating system or surfing the Internet ... Our goal is to fundamentally change the interaction between a computer and a person, that is, to do everything that was previously done with the mouse. Undoubtedly, this will affect everyone, from simple everyday tasks to any technological process that you can imagine.

So, undoubtedly, the Leap developers are looking far into the future, wanting to introduce their own vision of how to manage a computer. But the mouse at first too little people liked!



Moreover, at the end of this year, ASUS is going to release several models of Hi-end notebooks with built-in Leap Motion technology. So the future is already coming on the heels!

Leap Motion costs $ 80 in the USA. In Russia, the price tag does not rise above 5 thousand (and, in principle, also does not fall). It seems to me that even the Russian price is fully justified - the technology is new and interesting, therefore my opinion is absolute.

Well, it is quite interesting to develop the world of technology. He is really curious to watch him: I will not guess whether Leap Motion will become the technology of the future. If it becomes - I will only be glad. And if not - come up with something cooler. Time will tell.

Let's see how MYO will show itself ...