Leap Motion hacks show what 3D gesture sensing can do

Gamers, designers and photographers have innovative treats in store when the Leap Motion 3D gesture-sensing computer interface is launched next month

THE launch could be a watershed. Since last May, Leap Motion has shipped 12,000 of its 3D gestural interfaces to eager developers around the world. Now, a little over a month before the device's commercial release, we're getting the first glimpses of its enormous potential.

The Leap Motion sensor, which is 100 times more accurate than Microsoft's Kinect and less than half the price, will have a big launch-day head start on its predecessor. Where Microsoft closed off its device and threatened to prosecute anyone who reverse-engineered the $150 Kinect, Leap Motion has provided all that information up front to developers.

This means there will be a host of applications available ? from Leap-compatible versions of smartphone games to weather and creativity apps ? right from the off on 13 May.

Although it is initially aimed at desktop computers, researchers are already finding ways to jury-rig the Leap to smaller devices, to open up a new realm of interaction. "The idea we envision in the near future is that a Leap Motion-like device will be integrated into a smartphone," says Mingming Fan of the University of California, Irvine. "Instead of just interacting on the touchscreen, the space around the smartphone will be available too."

Fan has already hacked Leap and a smartphone together into a basic demo, but says that his goal is to use the hand tracking to allow a user to reach into the screen by going behind the phone. With Leap tracking the user's hand and displaying its image on the screen, the virtual hand could then be augmented with a gun, say, for first-person shooter games, or with Photoshop tools.

Another group of developers, LabViewHacker in Austin, Texas, needed just 24 hours with the Leap development kit to be able to rig it up to control a quadcopter using hand gestures.

Larger tech firms have also recognised Leap's potential. Brian Pene, a researcher at 3D design company Autodesk in San Francisco, has built a prototype using Leap which lets users manipulate a digital model of an engine with their own hands. "Let's say you wanted to disassemble and reassemble a 3D engine model," he says. "Using a mouse you'd have to pick up everything in 2D space while constantly manipulating the view. With Leap you can reach in and grab much like you do in the physical world."

Meanwhile, developer Vedran ?karica of Croatian firm divIT, has hacked Leap Motion into a basic photo management system, taking advantage of the extra dimension it provides in and out of the screen to make it easier to handle large volumes of photos. He plans to have the software, currently called Project Agatha, ready for Leap's commercial launch.

?karica points out that it will take some time for the truly game-changing 3D interfaces to appear, as 2D controls are so ingrained with computer users ? developers included. "You have to force yourself to forget what you knew, and it takes time to cancel those paradigms. Most Leap demos are just adjustments of multitouch demos," he says.

He also suggests that the enhanced interaction possibilities that Leap offers will trigger a new generation of much more useful 3D displays. "This is the first time that input technology has jumped ahead of display technology," ?karica says. "I've been waiting a while for something that can surpass the mouse, and Leap is definitely it."

This article appeared in print under the headline "A grand Leap forward"

Make your avatar wave

In January, Jason Gholston reached out and touched a virtual universe. A senior producer at Linden Labs, the company behind virtual world Second Life, Gholston has hacked the Leap Motion gestural device. His prototype lets Second Life players control flight, manipulate objects and get their avatar to make gestures. "It's very neat to just wave your hands and see things respond in the world, and with an acceptable amount of latency," says Gholston. Linden Labs has now handed over further Leap development to Second Life's open-source community. Gholston says the Leap has the potential to give Second Lifers full control over their virtual hands and fingers through their real ones.

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