I want this now! (Gesture support!)

[TechnicalBen]

https://www.leapmotion.com/

A gesture detecting device that actually works. For less than $100. For those who might not think it's too good, check the end of the video where it maps and entire hand in 3d with a point cloud on screen. That's a lot of accuracy in a tiny device. Blows the kinect out of the water IMO.

Anyone else looking forward to this being in PCs, keyboards and laptops?

I do actually like the possibility of interactivity in games too. Not for FPS games, but simulations or puzzle or even RPGs.

[grasskit]

meh, motion controll systems, will remain a niche/gimmick. simply because keyboard and mouse offers precision and most importantly economy of movement. after novelty wears off all youre left is more hassle.

[JimDigritz]

I bet this is shit...

watches video

Blimey!

Just Pre-Ordered!

I'll post a review when/if it actually arrives!

[SanguineAngel]

I'll look forward to reading that Jim. Unless otherwise convinced I would agree with grasskit - the economy of movement provided by traditional input controls is hard to beat with faffy motion controls.

[JimDigritz]

Sure, it will never supplant Keyboard and Mouse for 90% of stuff, yet for some 3d modelling and other graphic work this would be ideal in addition to the K+M and Tablet holy trinity.

A lot will depend on the drivers, but being able to reach into 3d space and rotate an object is something I've always felt would be incredibly useful.

[mickygor]

I'm not so sure how good it'd be for gaming, obvious choices like god games aside, but I definitely want it for productivity. Had it preordered for a while now, I'd actually forgotten.

[internetonsetadd]

I have a gesture for stuff like this. Usually. I love this. It makes me want to be Tom Cruise in that film about minorities, and I almost never want to be Tom Cruise.

[GameCat]

I would consider buying it if I can map middle finger gesture to killing actually running (or rather actually crashed) app process.

[Shooop]

I don't see this replacing mouse and keyboard setups for games because it helps to have something with weight for precision. This requires your hands and fingers be free-floating which is really imprecise. Especially if you're a heavy coffee drinker. But for art apps like Photoshop and 3D modeling this could extremely useful alongside our Wacoms.


Also, fingerbang!

Because I just had to.

[apricotsoup]

Sure, it will never supplant Keyboard and Mouse for 90% of stuff, yet for some 3d modelling and other graphic work this would be ideal in addition to the K+M and Tablet holy trinity.

A lot will depend on the drivers, but being able to reach into 3d space and rotate an object is something I've always felt would be incredibly useful.

There are already far better controls for that kind of thing, I forget the name of them but they replace the keyboard and work with your mouse/tablet for easy rotation + shortcuts without sacrificing any of the mousy accuracy. I don't have one myself but I know people who love them.

This wont have the accuracy to compete with a mouse, the pressure levels to compete with a tablet or the shortcut abilities to compete with a keyboard.

As someone who's in a 3d/2d modelling/painting space for most of the week I can't see this as anything more than an amusing gimmick

[TechnicalBen]

meh, motion controll systems, will remain a niche/gimmick. simply because keyboard and mouse offers precision and most importantly economy of movement. after novelty wears off all youre left is more hassle.

Did you watch the video? I would not put it past them to offer it with keyboard software at some point. Granted, it won't replace keyboards and mice, but it's a million times better than touch. ;)

[cjlr]

Anything in-between a mouse and a holodeck is just faffing about.

I want my holodeck.

[Internet]

You need to be too close to the screen for my tastes. It's a shame because I would like to control my couchputer with something like a wiimote. Maybe it might be neat with a horizontal screen as a drawing tablet, but it looks awkward to me.

[mickygor]

You need to be too close to the screen for my tastes. It's a shame because I would like to control my couchputer with something like a wiimote. Maybe it might be neat with a horizontal screen as a drawing tablet, but it looks awkward to me.

There are a few solutions out there for interfacing with your PC with a wiimote.

[Vandelay]

You need to be too close to the screen for my tastes. It's a shame because I would like to control my couchputer with something like a wiimote.

The Razer Hydra is probably what you want, if you aren't into faffing around with getting a wiimote to work. It is also far more accurate than a wiimote. I play pretty much all of my single player games on the Hydra and I rarely feel hindered due to them (only real time is when I'm playing a game that has poor mouse implementation, as things such as acceleration become really heightened.) You can even play slower paced strategy games, such as Sins of a Solar Empire perfectly capably.

Only downside, besides cost, is that they are wired. The cables are a good size, but you will want to be near the base unit to avoid interference.

[TechnicalBen]

Hope they offer this inside remotes/controllers/mice/keyboards then. That would probably give you the best of both worlds and little drawback. I'm sure they can expand it's range at some point.

[Vandelay]

Hope they offer this inside remotes/controllers/mice/keyboards then. That would probably give you the best of both worlds and little drawback. I'm sure they can expand it's range at some point.

The range of this will be dictated by the length of the cable on the sensor. You won't need to be waving your hands right in front of the monitor, as he is in the video.

Although this does look like some quite cool tech, I don't really see it being the future of how we will be controlling our desktop PCs. The company would probably be better off licensing the tech to be used to control other devices, such as TVs or stereos. For something a bit more ambitious, it would probably be a good fit to control a table top computer, but it would require an OS specifically built around this control scheme.

[tomeoftom]

You guys are all short-sighted idiots and this is phenomenal tech. The 3D point-cloud showing the resolution and latency of the hands is incredible. This is future R&D, not something that should be used to control traditional UIs. Although, their ad was admittedly really stupid in boiling down the hand gestures to a goddamn mouse pointer half the time.

If you can't see the potential in a control scheme that gives you analog and natural use of every finger at once then you have no imagination whatsoever and should be banned from this planet.

[TechnicalBen]

The range of this will be dictated by the length of the cable on the sensor. You won't need to be waving your hands right in front of the monitor, as he is in the video.

Although this does look like some quite cool tech, I don't really see it being the future of how we will be controlling our desktop PCs. The company would probably be better off licensing the tech to be used to control other devices, such as TVs or stereos. For something a bit more ambitious, it would probably be a good fit to control a table top computer, but it would require an OS specifically built around this control scheme.

I agree. That is what they are doing. I think it was Acer who signed them up to put it in all their laptops. I agree it won't replace current controls, but it may make touch screens obsolete (which is a "good thing" IMO ;) ).

[tomeoftom]

TechnicalBen - yeah, it is a good thing. Touchscreens have some serious problems:

- Your hand can cover a huge portion of the screen, especially on mobile.
- Interfaces tend to get designed around stuff like slides etc, which, when they don't register or lag, are seriously annoying due to the dissonance between the physicality of your interaction and the complete lack of physical feedback.
- You can't use them on large screens well, and certainly not on upright screens.
- You can't control a screen from far away.

Don't get me wrong, it will probably always be the best physical interface for mobile, but it'd be great to have a more efficient way to use a desktop than having a whole hand limited to a single pointer on a single plane, with only digital buttons.

A UI to handle this would have to be completely unlike anything before, though. A mouse is still far better for Windows, Mac, and Unix, obviously. Unless you involve buttons somehow, you'll never know "yes, I definitely clicked".