Leaping forward?
Got a Xbox Kinect, Playstation Move, or similar 3D gaming interface at home? Isn't it cool to not have to hunt for a remote or wand or controller to be able to participate in a game? And it's nice to not worry whether our devices have power, or whether kids (or adults) will spill food, drinks, crumbs, or dirt on them and make them unusable.
Wouldn't it be even cooler if we had touch-free control of our desktops, laptops, and enterprise computers, the way Tom Cruise did in "Minority Report"? (see WIMP video here)
Technology has been getting closer to making this vision a reality. For instance, this demo at TED 2010 showed a spatial user interface, but it required the user to wear special gloves.
A new device by LeapMotion proposes to make the vision of accessory-free, touch-free navigation a reality. I pre-ordered a Leap Motion controller last year, and watched as beta stories like NASA controlling a space robot with a Leap Motion sensor began to surface.
Today I received my new toy technology device. The LeapMotion controller is tiny: a sleek, lightweight device about as long and thick as my index finger and twice as wide. So it takes just a small bit of space in front of my keyboard. [see more photos here].
I will be writing more here as I try out my Leap Motion controller. Stay tuned!
Image credits:
TED 2010 image by Steve Jurvetson on Flickr, via Wikimedia, under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license
Leap Motion controller image used in accordance with their social media guidelines
Leap Motion and the Leap Motion logo are the trademarks of Leap Motion, Inc. and are used here by permission.