All of us are used to making gestures with our hands. Welcoming or saying bye is just two of the dozens of gestures we make with hands. But what if you were told you could control your computer through gestures of your hands? Till now you have given commands to your computer with the help of a keyboard and the clicks of the mouse but a new technology called Leap Motion Controller seems to change the way we interact with our computers. But wait a second, isn’t this the same technology that is being used by Microsoft for years in the form of Xbox Kinect? You wave and make all sorts of motions to play video games standing or sitting far away from the monitor. But in Leap Motion Controller, you are in front of the monitor and you can easily use a mouse, a keyboard, or a track pad. What then is the sense to gesture with your hands?
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The Leap Motion Controller is a new technique that does not make the common input devices like track pad, mouse, or keyboard useless or obsolete. However, it is an exciting way to give commands to your computer under certain circumstances, especially when you are playing games based upon physics such as Angry Birds or Cut the Rope. In fact, leap motion controller is much than just using your hands to play games on your computer. You have to plug in the box that makes it possible through USB and see the magic of the movement of your fingers as it detects even 1/100th of a millimeter movement. The small box that measures 3 inches and costs $80 has hit the markets and you can buy one to experiment giving commands to your computer through your gestures.
If we go by the statement issued by Leap Motion, a San Francisco based company, the Leap Motion Controller is not a
device that is meant to replace your keyboard or mouse. It is a best a device that will improve the functions of certain computer programs. It is a very useful tool in the hands of artists who use computers to draw figures and animation artists who have to spend a lot of time in front of their computer monitors. These artists can learn to draw figures quickly using their fingers. This device works with pencils or brushes in hands so t is not difficult to get some practice and master the art of gesturing with one’s hands in front of this device.
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When you look at the small device, it looks no more than a piece of hardware but plug it into your computer and it becomes software ready to detect the motion of your fingers. There was a news that said that the company has made an agreement with Hewlett Packard to embed the device in their computers. However, no such computers fitted with Leap Motion Controller have hit the markets so far.
