LEAP has already been out for awhile now, but it seems that others still haven’t heard the news. If you want to get on with it right away, just watch the YouTube video below and see for yourself.
By definition, the LEAP is a “small iPod sized USB peripheral that creates a 3D interaction space of 8 cubic feet to precisely interact with and control software on your laptop or desktop computer. It’s like being able to reach into the computer and pull out information as easily as reaching into a cookie jar.” Sound familiar? Basically, it’s something similar to touch-screen, only you do your hand movements in the air, and LEAP will be able to interpret it.
So yeah, we’ll be able to do all sorts of things without the keyboard and mouse, and in thin air at that: navigate our desktop and the internet, play all kinds of games, type, create 3d models, design, draw sketches and so on, just like Tony Stark / Iron Man. In fact, it boasts that it’s 200x more sensitive than existing touch-free products and technologies, as well as it can distinguish your individual fingers and track your movements down to a 1/100th of a millimeter.
Pretty neat, huh? And it sells for only $69.95! I first thought it’d be like $100++ but I never thought we’d be able to have that kind of technology for less than 3,000 PHP- given that the tax rates in our country doesn’t ruin the price perception of people for this product.
Watch their demo video here:
Now the question arises: Does the LEAP makes things easier? Or it’s only awesome but not really that practical? Some people claim that it’ll only wear your arms out- that it’ll create the next-gen of geeks with big biceps. Though creators of LEAP pointed out that their initial goal for this product is for 3D designers to be able to create 3D models faster:
“The original inspiration behind Leap came from our frustration with 3D modeling— something that took 10 seconds in real life would take 30 minutes with a computer. Molding virtual clay with a computer should be as easy as molding clay in the real world. The mouse and keyboard were simply getting in the way.”
There’s no way to tell right away- we’ll never know until we actually try them. Let’s stay tuned!