Taking THE LEAP with Gesture Control

Over the past few years, researchers have been looking for ways to introduce an innovative and reliable input control for electronic devices.  Aside from Apple’s touchscreen interface, the innovative controls that have come out in the market are motion controls for the Nintendo Wii and the Microsoft Kinect.  Though these motion controls were initially intended for games, the applications for use can be much more. 

Following 5 years of development, a more seamless gesture control similar to the Kinect is practically ready for launch early 2013.  Dubbed the Leap, this new motion control uses VGA camera sensors to map out a 3D workspace of a user’s hands.  The Leap works much like Kinect, but without the distance restrictions and with accuracy down to 0.01mm.  The current model is around the size of a flash drive and uses VGA cameras with a workspace of around 3 cubic feet.  Bigger sensors mean a larger field for tracking that can detect more than just a user’s hand.  It can track fingers separately and can distinguish the difference between a finger and a pen.  The Leap is expected to be available to consumers by February 2013 at a price of just $70.

The simplest control it can do is similar to a touchscreen interface and allows users to interact with a device but without touching the display.  With bigger sensors, more gestures are possible to manipulate the device.  Applications for the Leap go beyond browsing and computing to include engineering, architecture, gaming, and medicine.  For now, it will offer gesture controls for desktop computers or laptops.  However, possibilities are even bigger in gaming.  It will offer great control options for first person shooting, racing, and more.  For role-playing games or MMRPG online games, it will provide limitless possibilities if augmented by gaming keyboards.  The Leap can handle all motion controls of the character while the gaming keyboard will be responsible for text input and other more sophisticated panel controls.

Just when you think Steven Spielberg’s gadgets in the sci-fi movie Minority Report is still decades away from conception, something comes along like the Leap to take our breath away – and we don’t even need those nifty gloves that Tom Cruise was wearing.  What’s the next challenge for our tech geniuses now?  Those holographic images that Tony Stark keeps moving around in his lab would be cool, don’t you think?