Recently I picked up a piece of hardware called Leap Motion that I found interesting, and it is one of the coolest things I have seen since 3D printers. Leap Motion is a device that tracks your hand movement and is used in mostly games, however it can be used in controlling your computer which I will get to later.
The hand meshes can be manipulated and turned into these cool glowing skeleton hands.
The Software: Leap Motion’s Software is extremely interesting because its open for all developers to use, thus creating massive amounts of content. My personal favorite part of the Leap Motion is being able to use it to adjust things like scrolling and the screens brightness without even laying a finger on the keyboard. This single app called BetterTouchTool comes with it which allows you to “Program” various gestures into the Leap Motion so that certain movements have certain outcomes. I made mine be able to detect when I spin my finger left or right, and lower or raise the screen brightness. That’s not all though, Leap Motion also has a big amount of uses for gaming. Even Cut The Rope got onto its app store. I see a huge amount of potential for developers and normal consumers in this device. There is one problem I have with the software and that is that it is not very good at tracking, it occasionally spazzes out and doesn’t work. That said, it does have a way to re-calibrate it and change the detection height. Also the Leap Motion is still in development so I can let the slight annoyances slide.
The Hardware: The Leap Motion controller is insanely small measuring at only 3 inches in length and 13 millimeters width and height. It’s perfect to carry around and easy to set up with just a single download of software to control it.
This extremely small device is easy to transport and keep in your pocket, If for some reason you need to switch computers ten times a day.
The controller also comes with a USB cable so that it will get a constant power supply and not have weird Bluetooth-related problems. I have to say that the hardware on the Leap Motion is very well made and feels sturdy yet light.
I would recommend Leap Motion to most people because it adds a fun new way to control your computer, browse the web, and play games. I’m just purely amazed at how this tech has become so well working, It is beautifully made and has some slight issues, but It will keep getting better, and I think it possibly could create its own type of genre eventually. Altogether, I feel like anyone who’s interested in motion tracking should get one of these, they are well made, and easy to use.