

Leap: A new gesture based interface for devices - travisglines
http://www.leapmotion.com/

======
danblick
Not to be cynical, but this reminds me a little of Alan Kay's comment:

""" By the way, Sketchpad was the first system where it was discovered that
the light pen was a very bad input device. The blood runs out of your hand in
about 20 seconds, and leaves it numb. And in spite of that it’s been re-
invented at least 90 times in the last 25 years. """

from <http://archive.org/details/AlanKeyD1987> around 7:10

~~~
JackC
I think there will be some things it's great at and some it's terrible at.
Here's one for free: how about using this to create the Rosetta Stone of sign
language? Or a portable sign-to-speech translator? (These are hard problems
for other reasons, but this thing brings you a lot closer.)

Think of it like this: Alan Kay isn't wrong, but you could say the same thing
about any input. The mouse is a very bad input device. It takes forever to use
it for on-screen typing. The keyboard is a very bad input device. It can't
tell how hard you're hitting each key when you do musical typing in
GarageBand. The microphone is a very bad input device. Voice control is way
slower than just clicking the menu item you want ...

If this thing is real, then within a couple of years there will be a dozen
reasons to refuse to buy a computer without one.

~~~
cturner
(I like the idea of a pressure-sensitive keyboard. Could be useful for music.
Probably hard to engineer in a way that would be useful and which wouldn't
compromise button input. Blue-switch cherry keyboards are annoying to type on.
Still, interesting idea.)

You're papering over the problems with relativism.

The keyboard is rapid to use and flexible. Although it has the possibility of
physical health problems with RSI, with light pen interaction you have the
certainty of pain and fatigue. Sign speakers don't need sign-to-speech - there
are keyboards already. There's been multiple attempts at text to speech as
well, and the result is more fiddly, less flexible and less rapid than you can
get with a keyboard.

There could be an argument that keyboards are complicated and have a learning
curve. But computers are the super-tool of our age. Why would you not learn
use of a tool that gives you combines great power with flexibility.

I think we still have discussions about alternative user interfaces that hark
back to the way humans interact with each other because most of the population
are not yet expert keyboard users. This will change. Once the developed world
is flush with expert keyboard users, user interfaces will go back to putting
greater emphasis on them.

~~~
egypturnash
I don't think it's one or the other. Has the mouse replaced the keyboard? It's
an additional way to interact.

Hell, I could have used it a little earlier today - I was bleaching my hair
and realized my machine wasn't playing any music. Currently my options for
remedying this are (1) poking at the media keys on my keyboard (and getting
bleach all over them), or (2) picking up my Wacom stylus, going to the Dock to
bring up iTunes, and hitting its play button, thus smearing bleach EVERYWHERE.
With one of these sitting on my desk and wired into some global hotkeys, I'd
have had the additional option of waving my hand in a particular way.

I'm also thinking I totally want to incorporate one of these into the media PC
I'm working on based on a Raspberry Pi, a pico projector, and half of a rubber
cat[1]. Slouch on the couch, wave my hands in precise gestures to control it
instead of having to bring up a mouse somehow.

Using it for long, sustained periods? Nah. Using it now and they? Oh yeah.

[1] the whole thing is disguised as Nyan Cat, with the projector poking out of
its snarling mouth and the plaque it's mounted on painted like a Pop-tart.

------
iandanforth
I'm sad the word 'robot' hasn't appeared in this thread yet. Let's correct
that.

Visual slam is great for medium distances, but pointclouds aren't really that
dense and are slow to update. Also the lidar to make the point clouds is
stupid expensive.

Add one of these guys onto your robot and you've got a really cool set of
'wiskers.' Short range, highly sensitive, super fast update. I'd love to put
several of these on a robot and use that to give it a sensitive field
surrounding its body.

Depending on how open the software and hardware are this will be a great
addition to the robotics community.

~~~
abecedarius
Great point. As far as openness, I'm concerned by this talk of an app store.

~~~
hollerith
Even putting aside concerns about openness, the mere fact that they are
talking this early about an app store is evidence that they're not focused on
delivering value. Apple did not start talking about an app store for iDevices
until they had millions of satisfied customers. I mean, why not use the Mac
App Store? Maybe they have a good answer to that question, but if so, they
should tell us what it is.

~~~
AndrewNoNumbers
Why would they use the Mac App Store? To throw profits to Apple?

~~~
jeffbcross
I was thinking Apple had this technology patented...maybe they have a
licensing agreement that requires use of App Store.

------
ChrisFornof
Dev Kits (free) Ship international within 1-3 months.

Pre-orders ($70) only ship domestic (for now) around winter.

20,000 dev kits are being made. We want to ensure this tech becomes
ubiquitous.

We're getting slammed with launch response. But if you guys have questions,
we'll try to answer them here shortly.

-Chris Community Builder

~~~
dmvaldman
Waiting for the load to drop so I can try to get a preorder!

Question: How can you render the "other side" of the hand at the 51+ second
mark? If this is indeed possible, that's quite a remarkable technology you
have.

~~~
acgourley
I suspect it's an illusion and that does not represent their true 3d point
cloud. It's probably a skinned 3d mesh of a hand which is then moving in sync
with the detected hand.

~~~
Schwolop
Their webpage suggests they can handle multiple devices connected to the one
PC, so I was wondering whether they had another sensor out of shot above the
scene pointing downwards.

Actually - scrap that. A better hunch is that it's not structured light at
all, but actually an electric field sensor. See this Quora answer (disclaimer,
by someone who "knows shit all about this"): [http://www.quora.com/Leap-
Motion/What-is-the-technology-behi...](http://www.quora.com/Leap-Motion/What-
is-the-technology-behind-Leap-Motion)

------
pbreit
This is very cool technology. The company was formerly "Ocuspec". One break-
through is using very inexpensive hardware (<$5 at RadioShack) to get that
sub-mm resolution. At the other end of the spectrum, they can cover a football
field (and more in the future). What they are showing now is just the
beginning. Kudos to rolling out with an SDK. I can inly imagine what sorts of
applications developers will dream up.

~~~
jasonwatkinspdx
What's the hardware? Two infrared cameras and a laser dot pattern of some
sort?

~~~
davydka
2 normal digital cameras and a uv or infrared dot pattern. I think the glass
is a uv filter. I got to play around with one at work.

~~~
ChrisFornof
Close enough.

------
acgourley
Let's have a constructive comment thread. Instead conveying love or hate for
it, how about listing the cases it's good and bad for.

 _good_

* Fruit Ninja - made for single finger input, short gameplay

* Pinching and zooming maps - good because it's usually a short activity

* CAD camera interactions - good for periodic strange rotation needs or showing a client that doesn't understand the normal movement hotkeys

* Periodic writing with pencil tool

 _bad_

* Shooters - can't turn player around, gameplay too long.

* Longterm writing or drawing - too tiring

~~~
huhtenberg
> _Periodic writing with pencil tool_

Very _very_ inconvenient. Writing on air is completely different and
considerably more tricky that writing on paper. Physically more demanding too.
It's one of those things that sound nice in theory, but not really practical.

~~~
acgourley
You're right. I just tried it (not with the leap hardware) - the inability to
"lift up" off the paper without leaving the sensor zone is weird. No haptic
feedback when you're on the "paper" and not.

~~~
EzGraphs
How about writing in the large - I am thinking big movements, like when
writing on a marker board?

~~~
huhtenberg
Still need to lift the marker to separate the words. And to touch it back
rather precisely so not to have the next word to be an inch below the first
one.

~~~
Gregorein
ain't feedback a relic of all 'press-double-hard-to-be-sure' buttons? With
handwriting recognition it shouldn't be that hard. also,
<http://madebymany.com/blog/wizards-and-haptic-gestures>

------
Sidnicious
I’d love to get one of these and play with it. Will the SDK and spec for
talking to it be freely available after the initial batch of preorders and
free dev kits?

As a counterexample, Emoviv gave a TED talk a while ago showing off a headset
that lets you control your computer with your mind. When you visit their
website you discover that you can only develop with a $500 “developer edition”
headset that comes with a single, nontransferrable license to use the SDK
(additional licenses are $99). The consumer model of the headset only runs
approved applications.

~~~
ChrisFornof
Dev Kits ship for free to 20,000 developers in 1-3 months.

Pre-orders are for consumers at $70 and ship this winter.

The idea is to give all the hackers maximum access to create awesome apps and
then deliver a healthy shiny ecosystem to the consumer. Also, we'd like to see
a larger shift towards people creating things, so encouraging early adopters
to get aboard the coding train is a positive trend.

It's a huge new interaction space, and we're looking for innovators to explore
it!

~~~
Sidnicious
That’s awesome. Are there any differences between the consumer model and the
dev kit, other than the price (and will people who bought the consumer model
be able to develop with it later)?

Other people have asked about openness… will there be any kind of control over
what programs can use it (i.e. do they need to be approved by you guys to
work?)

------
pbreit
More demos: [http://cnettv.cnet.com/control-your-desktop-wave-your-
hand/9...](http://cnettv.cnet.com/control-your-desktop-wave-your-
hand/9742-1_53-50124905.html)

Funding announcement: [http://www.marketwatch.com/story/leap-motion-
announces-1275-...](http://www.marketwatch.com/story/leap-motion-
announces-1275-million-series-a-funding-round-led-by-highland-capital-
partners-2012-05-09)

------
AndrewHampton
The first thing I thought after watching the video was how much money will
they make with pre-orders on this site and how much would they have made with
a kickstarter campaign?

------
CWIZO
I really can't imagine using this for a longer period of time. Maybe as an
extension of keyboard and mouse/trackpad that you would use to scroll trough
pages when researching something or stuff like that. You still need a keyboard
to type as far as I can see.

That being said; I really like the idea and would love to know the tech behind
it.

------
twelvechairs
I can't see why there is so much negativity as to end use applications. I can
see lots of potential for this - slideshow presentations, laptops (goodbye
annoying trackpad), as well as a stylus-and-tablet replacement for designers,
etc. etc.

I think the key however the key will be in the recognition of subtler
gestures. If you can show me a man using two hands to type, then moving them
not far from the keyboard to activate simple gestures for navigating a
document, I'd be really sold that this is for everybody.

~~~
d0mine
If they claim a submillimeter accuracy; I don't see why you can't type without
a physical keyboard.

~~~
mike-cardwell
Haptic feedback

------
abecedarius
There's no perceptible latency in its response to gestures -- I'm very
impressed assuming it's not a rigged demo. (In videos I've seen of the Kinect
the software responds to a gesture only after a noticeable fraction of a
second.)

~~~
paulbaumgart
It's not a rigged demo. (I saw them film it.)

~~~
abecedarius
Fantastic -- thanks.

------
Someone
The cynic in me thinks:

\- I have to see it before I believe it.

\- If this works as advertised, this company will never ship the product. They
will be bought within months for a huge sum of money, even if they do not want
to be bought. Reason for that is:

\- Litigation, litigation! They will need deep pockets to defend themselves
against patent claims.

~~~
xilei
Do you seriously think they haven't got that covered?

------
halfnelson
this isn't a concept - I got to play with the Fruit ninja demo as well as the
point cloud when I interviewed there. It really is that fast.

------
mattmanser
Already a lot of negativity here...

To me this looks amazing and although LEAP seem to be pushing for you to get
rid of your mouse/keyboard, personally I think this is probably best as an
addition to it. Imagine if you had one of these built into the keyboard.

You're typing an email need to add a location switch over to google maps,
hands off keyboard as you manipulate it around to get a decent resolution,
'tap' the address bar to copy it, swipe left to switch back to the email
program, tap again to paste and boom carry on typing.

You wouldn't need to be using it all the time for it to be extremely useful.

We keyboard jockeys sometimes forget how much faster something like this would
make the less shortcut-key knowledgeable users!

~~~
ChrisFornof
as a side note. Consider how many positions you can put your fingers into. Now
both hands?

Now imagine if each position was mapped to a different shortcut...

How many unique positions could you map? (compare to keyboard).

~~~
vibrunazo
I bet someone, somewhere is already planning an app where you downvote a post
by flipping the finger.

~~~
mike-cardwell
Surely that would be a thumbs up/down motion in the manner that Romans used to
decide the fate of gladiators.

~~~
intended
Honestly a lot of gestures based controls of the floating in mid air kind are
prone to tiring you out.

I suspect that unless there is some form of support, this may be like drinking
Pepsi: Sweet on the first sip, but after a while, not as great.

------
needle0
Forget the desktop. With the sensor being this small, I can imagine hanging
this from your neck and have gesture sensing anywhere, SixthSense-style. (
<http://www.pranavmistry.com/projects/sixthsense/> )

------
cryptide
I think i'll need to demo this unit before I purchase it. I remember getting
burned in the early nineties by the power glove's cool commercial:
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93iDhnBcMGo>

------
kreek
Interfaces like this look cool in movies but your hands aren't 'designed' to
be above your heart for an extended period of time. Now if you had something
like a drafting table with a touch screen I'd be first in line.

~~~
pfraze
Agreed, but I don't want a replacement interface; I want a companion to my
keyboard.

Type type type. Throw that away. Type type. Make that bigger. Type type type
type. Run that.

I can't wait.

~~~
corysama
Mount it above your monitor pointing down instead of setting it below pointing
up. Basically, point it at your keyboard. Type, type, type, lift your wrist a
couple inches, pinch, zoom, drag.

------
rglover
If you're an interface designer (I am), you should pre-order this thing. This
will be a standard form of interaction in a couple of years and you should
jump on it early and start figuring out the kinks. Too cool.

~~~
weego
It really won't. Have you any idea how tiring waving your arms around like
that would be all day?

There are so many use cases where it doesn't even work that would require a
complete rethink of how anything is presented on in internet. For example how
about the HN comments where it's pasted as code and it scrolls horizontally.
Target that and scroll it with that system. As soon as you have a single use
case where a mouse and keyboard is more effective you blow your value.

~~~
mr_luc
I'm familiar with the usual "arm-waving sucks" arguments against gesture-based
inputs, but I was just wondering -- is there any reason this couldn't just
replace the touchpad on laptops, maybe being integrated into the forward edge
for a larger field of view?

They _do_ claim sub-mm accuracy; maybe applications in the small are
realistic.

So instead of arm-waving, think of rotating your hand just above the touchpad
to rotate and object in 3d space, but briefly. And the touchpad would still
work like a regular touchpad, but maybe you don't even need to touch it.

Sub-mm accuracy seems to imply that really subtle gestures could work.

~~~
lucian1900
Not being able to un-touch your pointing device on your laptop would really
suck. It'd have to be mixed with a capacitive plate that knows when you touch
it.

------
mrsebastian
Better start working on my arm muscles...

------
ChuckMcM
I'd love something that was a combination of the two, a touch surface and
something like this looking 'down' toward that surface at what my hands were
doing. I could make typing like motions on the touch surface for typing. But
more importantly mostly my hands would be resting on something rather than
hanging out in front of me.

------
simonbarker87
As a concept this is pretty awesome and it removes the need to touch your
screen so I guess you can move the sensor closer to a more relaxed place, I
can see it getting tiring pretty quickly. Just like a standing desk though I
guess you just get used to it over time.

Aside from end use issues, the tech behind this is very nice

~~~
mrsebastian
Any idea what the tech behind it is? They're very vague on the website, and my
patent searches are turning up empty.

I guess some kind of infrared thing?

~~~
nrp
I suspect infrared time-of-flight. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time-of-
flight_camera>

You can get pretty impressive accuracy and precision at short distances, and
the plane of depth points matches what their demo video shows:
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_d6KuiuteIA&feature=playe...](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_d6KuiuteIA&feature=player_embedded#t=53s)

~~~
jasonwatkinspdx
I've read some other comments claiming that they can cover football stadium
sized venues. If that's true, I think that suggests laser illumination.

------
bitwize
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from a rigged demo.

Believe it when I see it live.

------
nollidge

      We asked one simple question: ‘What feel[’]s natural?’
      Two or three hundred thousand[s] lines of code later
      The Leap is a small iPod[ ]sized USB peripheral
      Do you support [w]indows?
      When do dev-kits ship[ ]
    

They are in serious need of a copyeditor.

------
c0mpute
Very interesting and looks slick (in the videos).

So could this be a Flutter.io competitor? Flutter.io is purely software
driven. I feel flutter will release a SDK/API as well at some point.

So I think intuition suggests that whoever can execute these best, will likely
succeed:

\- Rich feature set to capture gestures.

\- Simple API. Should be easy to integrate with 3rd party apps.

\- Performance.

Leap already has an edge in that they are releasing a SDK, Flutter should
follow this quickly (hopefully). Flutter makes it easy to get it to people as
it is just pure software, but can they achieve capturing rich gestures?

Exciting times.

------
Garbage
From FAQ

 _How can I get a free developer kit?_

We’re distributing thousands of kits to qualified developers, because, well,
we want to see what kinds of incredible things you can all do with our
technology. So wow us. Actually, register to get the SDK and a free Leap
device first, and then wow us.

 _Do you support windows?_

Yes! We also support native touch emulation for Windows 8.

 _How about Linux?_

Linux support is on the agenda.

 _When do dev-kits ship_

Depending on which batch you’re in; anywhere from 1-3 months.

 _What are the tech specifications for the LEAP?_

TBD.

------
netfire
While waving your hand in front of a monitor looks pretty cool, its definitely
not going to work well for most work or extended use. Also, I think the reason
touch-based devices have caught on so well is that we like the tactile
feedback of dragging our finger across a defined plane.

I'd be interested to see what you could do if you projected an image onto a
work surface to make that more interactive. Seems like it would be easier to
draw or manipulate 2D things on a plane rather than trying to wave your hand
in 3D space. (Image Manipulation, Graphic Editing, Maps, etc)

------
gotrythis
I've been searching all over for something like this as a potential mouse
replacement to help with my finger tendinitis. I just pre-ordered. Also an
interface designer, so I'm excited to see where this goes.

------
mkramlich
So the obvious weakness here is that this will be less precise than a control
system that uses direct touch such as a keyboard, mouse or touch pen. It looks
fun and dramatic though.

------
elisk
I want to play Modern Warfare 3 (or more likely BLOPS2) with that thing.

I've already started thinking about some gestures that could be used for this,
but I'm wondering, how hard it's going to be on the hand(s)? I mean with the
mouse and keyboard (supposing PC gaming) the hands are resting on the table
90% of the time, with this the hand(s) will be up in the air.

...unless someone puts a nice glass table on top of that thing so that my
hands could rest... could this work?

------
kylebrown
Wow.. I would love to develop for this.

I dropped out of state U. after my 3rd year (math major), but that was years
ago. At my current start-up, I have recently been forced to learn much more
than I was expecting to about probabilistic graphical models and curve
similarity measures (gladly though; always been interested in pattern
recognition).

Anyone with a vision for this, consider dropping me a line. I might be able to
help.

~~~
chime
I'd love to integrate it with my KType application ( <http://ktype.net> ) or
build a new software that converts hand gestures / ASL to speech. I think it's
totally doable and would be a lot of fun technically too. What do you think?

~~~
kylebrown
Well, off the top of my head I don't see a straightforward way to integrate
with KType (nice work btw!). Just because there would be so many possibilities
for mapping hand gestures to the KType actions/commands.

On the other hand, converting sign language to text/speech _seems_ like it
_should_ be quite straightforward. Not knowing anything about sign language,
I'm assuming signs map (more or less) one-to-one with words. The input from
LEAP appears to be extremely high resolution, so if the sign gestures are
properly normalized (and judging from the demo video, it looks like the LEAP
SDK itself already does a good degree of input normalization), you _should_ be
able to just train your classifier (neural network, SVM, etc.) right out of
the box.

Of course, things are never as easy as they look so in all likelihood there
are plenty of complications I'm completely overlooking at first glance. But I
agree with you 100% that it sounds totally doable.

~~~
btr41n
So sign language isn't really one-to-one, but that is something that I really
want to work with, so I look forward to getting a unit. I think this system
has a lot of potential as a learning tool! Awesome job guys!

------
formax
I'm calling fake or very optimistic to say the least.

The promo video doesn't show a physical device, the price point seems
ridiculously low especially for a resolution of 0.01mm. And also there is this
<http://bit.ly/KOqDi2> the physical hand and the point cloud don't match. It's
like someone is moving their hand(s) fast to mimic the movement of the
visualization.

~~~
dsirijus
Been running a little through all the vids of it around.

I'm still undecided. Perspective on each supposedly "fake" screenshot could
explain the mismatch. In your example, you actually don't see how far his
fingers are apart. Also, it might be attributed to that particular finger
going to the borders of the 3D interaction space of Leap.

------
jamesrcole
Looks like it'd be a nice augment to the usual keyboard & mouse/trackpad setup
(& to a touchscreen, too).

For some tasks (e.g. changing to a diff browser tab five across from the
current one) I can imagine that pointing at it would be the quickest and
easiest way to switch to it.

I can imagine it'd get a bit tiring if you were relying on it too exclusively.

------
nextparadigms
Google should be all over this. Microsoft has Kinect, there are rumors Apple
has been working on it, too, and I know Google hired the product lead from
Kinect a while ago (George something), but I haven't seen much come out of
that. This could be very useful for Google TV and who knows what else in the
future. Better to integrate it in the Google X lab.

------
pullo
wonder what they thought about 'gorilla arm'.also the demo did not show a way
to type information. but looks really cool :))

~~~
dclowd9901
> also the demo did not show a way to type information

I don't think people in the gesture interface market are looking for ways to
replace the essential function of the keyboard. For all intents and purposes,
it's probably the best way to input textual data into a machine.

~~~
pullo
Keyboards are the also the only way ( until now) to input textual data.not
implementing that makes this at best a companion device to existing setup and
not a replacement. [edit]. voice to text transcriptions can be an
alternative..

------
amatsukawa
They should mount this inside a keyboard, I don't want an extra dongle
randomly lying on my table.

On a completely different note, though, I wonder what the range on these
things is. Could have excellent applications to robotics, I hope they don't
completely close the vision outputs behind their own gesture APIs or
something...

------
powatom
It'll be interesting to see how this pans out - but I can't see it being
widely adopted in the home any time soon. People who want gesture based stuff
will use Kinect.

However, I can see this being huge in the commercial market. I can easily
imagine using something like this in a shop, or for presentations at work.

~~~
egypturnash
Googling for "kinect price" gives me numbers of about $150; this is priced at
$70. Even if we assume this is a discounted price to lure in pre-orders, that
still leaves room for it to cost less.

I would not think of getting a Kinect but my thought upon seeing the video was
"I want to get one of these and use it to control the RasPi I'm sticking in
some fake taxidermy along with a pico projector for a micro media PC."

------
seshagiric
Motions like they use in the fighter jet game or the shooting game (and some
others) may not come naturally to everyone. In fact the one for continuous
shooting specifically seems to be counter intuitive.

But the idea of bringing such gesture based interaction to just about any
device is really great.

~~~
jachwe
Motions like using a mouse or a keyboard are not a single bit more intuitive
for flying planes or shootings guns. It just an issue of familiarisation with
the interface as it was with the mouse, as it was the keyboard.

Beside that, it really doesn't matter as these were only two examples of a
large variety of possible applications. If it doesn't fit the need - don't use
it. There are other interfaces. There is no need for one interface to rule
them all but for interfaces that really hits the spot for particular
applications.

Regarding Leap: Looks really promising. Though i would prefere if it would be
"hidden". Anyhow, can't wait to get my on it. Or over it.

------
wwwtyro
At that size and price point, it could have a significant impact on mobile UI.
I'm looking at you, google glass.

------
cma
Windows 8's tabletification will possibly end up being a smart move with the
introduction of this thing.

------
jamesflorentino
This is gonna be a pain in the arm for photoshoppers. But i'm interested to
see this technology grow into popularity. I can't believe we're actually
having something like this in our time. 20 years ago, you can only see stuff
like these in science fiction novels and movies.

------
SkyMarshal
Love it. I was just wishing for this recently [1].

Now they just gotta turn it into a protocol and build it into monitors.

1\. <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3988700>

------
honzacz
Add some weight bracelets on your wrists and work out while using your
computer:)

------
postscapes1
Surprised by the negative reactions here. If Kinect has shown us anything it
is this thing will be used for a host of things not shown in their demo
videos. Robots, Interactive Art, etc,

------
auzieo
ChrisFornof: What is the normal workflow after filling the dev kit application
form? I got redirected to the homepage with no confirmation step or email. I
wouldn't want to double-apply.

~~~
georgieporgie
I was sent to a result page that read, "Your developer application has been
confirmed. Thanks for your interest in Leap."

------
blake8086
Well I just pre-ordered one and applied for the dev kit. I don't even have a
specific plan for this yet, but I think the 3-d object scanning ability alone
makes this worth it.

------
sravfeyn
That looks like Tony Stark's interface, except this is in 2D.

------
natemartin
Did anyone get an email confirmation after applying for the dev kit? After I
hit the button, it reloaded to the home page, and I haven't seen any emails.

~~~
ChrisFornof
Website is a little wonky at the moment. Bear with us guys. We'll get you your
kits soon enough.

~~~
natemartin
Just wondering if I should fill it out a second time, since I never saw a
confirmation screen. I understand it will take some time to ship, just want to
know the application actually made it into the database! :)

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EzGraphs
Another interesting application not mentioned yet is 3d scanning... and their
site mentions 3d modeling work as the initial motivation for the product.

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squarecat
We're almost there: <http://youtubedoubler.com/49ni> (LEAP vs Minority Report)

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dfgonzalez
I already want this as a captcha solution:

Say 3 with your fingers to prove you are not a robot.

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___Calv_Dee___
No SDK love for Canadian developers?

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ChrisFornof
Dev kits go to anyone internationally. Pre-orders are domestic only (for the
moment).

And we've got nothing against our northern neighbors, nor is it some grand
favoritism conspiracy. Pure rollout logistics. Lots of people are getting
confused on this point, we'll announce more shortly.

~~~
kazuya
Hmm I've just pre-ordered two from Japan (and applied to the dev program too).
I believe the form included international locations, can you confirm it?

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dmbarbour
I see a lot of potential for a new class of musical instruments based on
waving your hands.

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friggeri
I absolutely love the concept of using something akin to chopsticks to
manipulate data.

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nico_h
Beside Google Maps and fruit ninja, what are the apps demoed in the video ?

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mikelbring
First thing that came to my mind was Tony Stark's computer.

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username3
Does this have no lag or is that a concept video?

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pbreit
There is very little, if any, perceptible lag.

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zooey
not good...it's tiring to not rest your fingers on a surface. your muscles
need to rest, your fingers need to touch.

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saijanai
signing and finger spelling. If it can be made portable, it is a HUGE
breakthrough for certain people.

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cbr
This looks awesome, but very tiring.

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joshu
Structured light?

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CubicleNinjas
I'm happy that the team took their passion to execute one something so
effectively.

But not all ideas are good. It violates Fitt's law by placing all user
interaction within a vertical band next to your computer. This is very
uncomfortable and decreases the usefulness for most applications (because
missing the interaction band is likely).

If these were wireless gloves that I could more easily (with my arms in any
location) then I'd love this.

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pilgrim689
"This is very uncomfortable and decreases the usefulness for most
applications"

You are forgetting that "most applications" are designed for a mouse and
keyboard.

A more useful critique would be to analyze the type of applications that can
be built with LEAP in mind.

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CubicleNinjas
Why would "a more useful critique" be looking at pro-LEAP applications? Is it
because this what you want to hear? LEAP is a bad idea, not bad due to
software, bad due to the constraints of human beings.

You're literally arguing a logical fallacy by the way:
<http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Negative_proof>

~~~
pilgrim689
You don't understand my point. I was picking at how you claimed that X was bad
because it can't be used for applications designed for Y.

I also doubt your understanding of "negative proof"... But that's off-topic

~~~
CubicleNinjas
I addressed your point directly.

