A Quantum LEAP In Computing

I have a special treat for you ATS... I searched and couldn't find anything in the forums, so I'm sure this is going to make a splash. Some of our more tech-savvy folks may have already seen this, but I'm betting that most have not. I'm suspecting that this is going to spread like fire.

It's like Kinect for the XBox, on steroids. This technology is accurate to .001mm of precision movement, which is mind-blowing. It is going to take computing to a completely new level, and is what is known as a Natural User Interface (NUI). There is a very big push in the market for NUI technology, which you can look into outside of this post. You will be hearing more about these types of interfaces as time goes on, but this product is going to be as big, if not bigger, than Apple was when it debuted the iPhone. There are a few other products in the same market space, but none that remotely compare to what the Leap Motion can do. It will be released to the public at the end of the year, and you can pre-order them and sign up for a developer kit if you are a software developer, but only if you're selected to get a kit (they are hand picking who gets them). I have personally seen one, it is about the size of a USB thumb drive, and is absolutely astonishing in its capabilities. It changes the way artists will draw, 3-d modelers will model, games will be played, maps will be viewed and navigated and basically change the entire way you interact with your computer, making PCs more like tablets and touch screen devices, but without the touch. The possibilities are incredible, and all for less than a really good mouse. That's right, only $70 for one (I've pre-ordered mine already), so get ready folks, because the computing world is about to get really interesting.

My personal hope is that this opens up a new door for entrepreneurship and innovation.

Worth noting... Peter Thiel is one of the investors behind this technology, who also backed Facebook and PayPal, so there is no shortage of funds and this is already being positioned in the market to be included with all new computers.

So ATS, without further adieu, I present to you, the Leap Motion. Enjoy!









Leap Motion Website

~Namaste

S&F!!

'I just achieved a "techno chubby"

I cannot wait to make some fake UFO footage with this thing and photoshop!

Interesting but I wouldn't want to use it. You'd be better off using some kind of tablet type device that will take the weight of your arm as no one wants to hold their hands up in the air for extended periods of time. Use over extended periods would get tiring at the very least, and potentially damaging from an RSI perspective.

Nice idea, but completely impractical.

reply to post by RMFX1


Thanks for the feedback, but you have to see one in order to understand. You don't hold your hands up for extended periods of time, and you can position the device in your lap if you really wanted to, and rest your arms on the arm rests of your chair while only moving your fingers, so it doesn't have to sit on the desk. A natural user interface means that you can do things "naturally" instead of forcing you to do things with a mouse or keyboard, which are not "natural". Moving your fingers and hands is more natural to interpret.

RSI would be a thing of the past. I suggest you watch the videos to see the different ways it can be used, because there is nothing that forces you to keep your arms in fixed positions.

Don't artists have to keep steady hands on a canvas when painting? Surgeons a steady hand and fixed motions when doing surgery? This is no different...

Think outside of the box.

~Namaste

Originally posted by SonOfTheLawOfOne
reply to post by RMFX1

 

Don't artists have to keep steady hands on a canvas when painting? Surgeons a steady hand and fixed motions when doing surgery? This is no different...

Think outside of the box.

I don't need to "think outside of the box" as you put it. I'm speaking from experience. I work with artists that draw and create art on these things every day:

www.liquidphoenixcreative.com...

Even though their arms are somewhat supported, some of them have developed sore joints and muscle pain.

Position it in your lap and rest your arms on the arms of the chair? That sounds ridiculous.

Wacom tablets have been around for over a decade, and artists have been around for even longer. If you could draw in 3-D with a pencil in the air, and didn't have to put pressure on the joints by pressing DOWN on something that creates resistance to the muscles and joints, like paper or a canvas or a tablet, you wouldn't have the same types of issues.

Being artistic myself, I can tell you from my own personal experience that there are no tools that allow you to draw a three dimensional representation of something in real time like this device can do.

Having seen and demoed one myself, I could place the device down on my lap on a flat surface like a book, and resting my arms on the chair, I could wave my finger around and draw with either my finger, or by holding a pencil, with better precision than a Wacom tablet, and I could do it in a third dimension with DEPTH. Try to do that on your Wacom with pressure sensitivity and see how it turns out.

Watch the videos, but if you think this is "ridiculous", just tell that to Microsoft and Apple, both of whom are already in talks about licensing the technology. Think about what 2 or 3 or 4 of these devices strategically placed could provide in terms of modeling and art and gaming instead of thinking that it's any more repetitive than things are today with a keyboard, mouse, tablet or other device.

~Namaste

Looks like the same tech used in "Minority Report". That came out in 2002.

I wonder how advanced these things really are. The MI (military-industrial) sector isn't talking.

Originally posted by aaaiii
Looks like the same tech used in "Minority Report". That came out in 2002.

I wonder how advanced these things really are. The MI (military-industrial) sector isn't talking.

Great observation. It's pretty much identical.

A keyboard can be replaced by a virtual keyboard. A mouse can be replaced by your finger, without the pad. You could play instruments just like they were real, with strum sensitivity on a guitar, and pressure sensitive drums, but without the instruments needing to be represented like they are in Rock Band or Guitar Hero.

It is a game changer.

~Namaste

reply to post by SonOfTheLawOfOne


Really cool technology that will change some aspects of computing but I don't believe it will be the revolution that SotLoO thinks it will. What you fail to realize (understand maybe?) is tactile feedback is NOT a bad thing. Tactile feedback is needed for most tasks. No one will want to type on a "virtual" keyboard....we already have those and there not exactly flying off the shelf. Artists (and if you are one surely you will agree) need/want tactile feedback when creating.

It's a cool toy but I don't see that it will be much more than that...maybe eventually...as people become used to the thought of not touching anything (meaning those that are children now) in order to create on the pc we may see a paradigm shift in pc input devices. But even then I don't see this technology being the leading technology for that. THAT technology will be brain interfaces.

Cool tech, but not much more.

After reading I feel the need to clarify; I think this technology will permeate certain computing aspects...but it will not replace the mouse and keyboard or most other pc input devices. We may see this technology more for public use kiosks in malls/airports and the like...but less so for our personal computing. There may be certain computing applications where this will excel over a mouse and keyboard for individual use but I can't think of a single one at the moment.

Think physics... think music... think engineering... think of all of the things that you can do with computers today, that if you could use the dexterity of your hands instead of a mouse or keyboard, would change how you use it.

As I mentioned before, having worked in the past in design and computer animation, manipulating a 3-d object in Maya or LightWave was insanely tedious, and even with tools like a Wacom tablet where you could use a pencil or stylus in place of a mouse, it was still very very cumbersome and difficult to create 3-d animations and clips. It could take hundreds of hours to model a single scene.

This technology completely changes that. Instead of using NURBS, which are incredibly time-consuming, now I can use my hands to turn the object, squeeze it, push and pull parts of it in and out, all with simple gestures, just as if I was modeling clay. This is natural to a 3-d artist in how they mentally visualize objects and how they want to manipulate them. With technology like this, a studio like Pixar will be able to crank out Toy Story movies in weeks, not months or years. And this is not including any advancement in processing power, which is not needed to accomplish any of this.

I'm just scratching the surface. The applications are almost infinite, and the whole thing is backward compatible with existing software that recognizes touch, so all of the touch-based applications out there today will work with the Leap without anything else needed.

After having demoed one, I can tell you, it is amazing.

~Namaste

reply to post by SonOfTheLawOfOne


Well, like I said; For certain computing tasks I'm sure this will excel although I'll wager Excel isn't one of them (lol I couldn't resist) But I just fail to see that this will be the huge paradigm shift you seem to think it will. Maybe I'm wrong (wouldn't be the first time) but I don't think I am. In fact, I can't imagine visiting this forum and communicating with you by doing some finger motions in the air...just doesn't appeal to me. I, like most other people, like the tactile feedback of my keyboard. It will never replace a mouse and keyboard is the central theme to my posts on this subject. I believe the only technology that will do that is brain interface technology.

But it is a very interesting post so a star and flag for you sir!

Originally posted by EdSurly
reply to post by SonOfTheLawOfOne

 

Really cool technology that will change some aspects of computing but I don't believe it will be the revolution that SotLoO thinks it will. What you fail to realize (understand maybe?) is tactile feedback is NOT a bad thing. Tactile feedback is needed for most tasks. No one will want to type on a "virtual" keyboard....we already have those and there not exactly flying off the shelf. Artists (and if you are one surely you will agree) need/want tactile feedback when creating.

It's a cool toy but I don't see that it will be much more than that...maybe eventually...as people become used to the thought of not touching anything (meaning those that are children now) in order to create on the pc we may see a paradigm shift in pc input devices. But even then I don't see this technology being the leading technology for that. THAT technology will be brain interfaces.

Cool tech, but not much more.

After reading I feel the need to clarify; I think this technology will permeate certain computing aspects...but it will not replace the mouse and keyboard or most other pc input devices. We may see this technology more for public use kiosks in malls/airports and the like...but less so for our personal computing. There may be certain computing applications where this will excel over a mouse and keyboard for individual use but I can't think of a single one at the moment.

edit on 25-8-2012 by EdSurly because: (no reason given)

I already mentioned 3-D, but that's a simple one.

How about collaboration? When working on computers, (which I still do) people usually huddle around one-person's computer where that one person is faster at using the mouse and keyboard or software, and they all add feedback and collaborate while that one person navigates and does "stuff". At times, some of those people will ask to "drive" and borrow the keyboard and mouse so that they can do something quickly rather than explain it incorrectly. This type of collaboration is not efficient at all.

Now... why is that???

Because you can only have a single mouse and a single keyboard, but everyone wants to participate.

With this technology, that will be possible. Instead of writing on a white board, everyone at a table could have a Leap and contribute their notes and designs and ideas, all in one environment, in real-time. Instead of multiple people working on separate aspects of something and having to merge them together later (also tedious and painful in designing things), they can work around the same desk or table.

I can see so far, that the thought is that it's just a cool device, but understand that moving your hands the way you want is a more natural movement than being forced to move them within the constraints of a mouse and keyboard. That alone, will change things dramatically for almost any experience using a computer.

I can't be the only person here with vision to see where this is going... I'm surprised some of the feedback so far is slanted in a negative fashion.

~Namaste

reply to post by EdSurly


I can understand where you're coming from about the keyboard.

However, speech recognition is now at the forefront and there are plenty of products that are excellent at speech recognition.

Here's a scenario for you... based on your feedback about the keyboard and it's tactile response...

If I had the choice to speak and have it type for me, I would do that in a hot second. Dragon dictation software is already there. If I combined that, with the leap and a virtual keyboard, the only things I would ever have to type is a word that the software didn't pick up, or incorrectly interpreted. With built-in grammar correction in most software that you would type into, like MS Word, you could speak through Dragon and virtually write an entire book, and then with the leap, scroll through all of your typos and improper grammar, and fix them by either speaking the correct word into Dragon more slowly so it recognizes it, or use a virtual keyboard to type it.

This concept is already at work on the iPhone 4S. I can speak my text messages, and if it misses something, I tap the virtual keyboard to type it, or the words are highlighted with a blue or red line that I can tap and see the other possible replacements and choose one.

Same concept, and very cheap technology. The software and the Leap together would be less than $250, which is less than the cost of an iPhone.

Speech recognition will only get better, and then the need for a keyboard will become far less necessary than it is today, because for most people, that's the only reason we still use one is for "writing". Everything else is done with mouse clicks, which a point-and-poke gesture with Leap would replace and feel more natural to do.

I see a lot more potential for this I guess, maybe because I'm entrenched in the industry?

~Namaste

No different than "6th sense"

www.pranavmistry.com...

Same concept.

~Tenth

This is brilliant technology! The applications could really be endless. I am excited to see what people will create for it. One of the first things that comes to mind is a step forward in creating technology like you see in the Iron Man movies, which I have drooled over for years now. The way he can manipulate items with his hands is incredible, slight gestures tossing items from screen to screen or zooming in and out. And then there is the hologram aspect, which we have seen possible with things like hologram Tupac recently. If you could integrate this with holographic technology and be able to actually reach in and manipulate objects with your hands, that would be the game changer. And now it doesn't seem too far off.

Originally posted by tothetenthpower
No different than "6th sense"

www.pranavmistry.com...

Same concept.

~Tenth

It's VERY different.

People have a schtick about wearing devices. It feels intrusive. This is why they have never taken off in the market.

Again, you have to understand the concept of a natural user interface. Does wearing a contraption of some kind on your body feel natural? A glove? Something on your head? Even if only on your finger? Ever been in the hospital and have those heart monitor and oxygen sensors wrapped on your finger? Wear one for an hour and you're ready to go crazy.... this is why the concept of wearable devices doesn't stick in the market, people just don't like them because they don't feel natural.

It's completely different when all you have to do is move naturally like you do today for everything else in your physical space. Want to grab something and pick it up? That can be done with the Leap. Want to squeeze something between your fingers? You can do that on the Leap.

Now, I can absolutely see the need for FEEDBACK response, which would require a device if you need to feel something push back against your fingers, but that is completely different than what you would use the Leap for.

I guess you'll have to wait until it comes out at the end of the year to see it and play with one yourself to see the potential applications.

~Namaste

Originally posted by Hektik1
This is brilliant technology! The applications could really be endless. I am excited to see what people will create for it. One of the first things that comes to mind is a step forward in creating technology like you see in the Iron Man movies, which I have drooled over for years now. The way he can manipulate items with his hands is incredible, slight gestures tossing items from screen to screen or zooming in and out. And then there is the hologram aspect, which we have seen possible with things like hologram Tupac recently. If you could integrate this with holographic technology and be able to actually reach in and manipulate objects with your hands, that would be the game changer. And now it doesn't seem too far off.

edit on 25-8-2012 by Hektik1 because: (no reason given)

YES!!!

What we have seen in movies and dreamed about is becoming reality. Think Iron Man and some of the engineering scenes where he would "explode" the inner workings of the engineering of the suit and manipulate them in real physical space. That is called CAD (computer assisted design) and an area where this will revolutionize productivity.

Tasks that currently take months and years with current devices will take weeks when you can manipulate them naturally.

Star for you.

~Namaste

reply to post by SonOfTheLawOfOne


Holy crap, there is no way I would replace my keyboard with speech recognition software...have enough trouble with our Ford Sync and my Windows Phone recognizing my Oklahoma drawl. Besides, nothing sounds more un-fun than speaking out loud everything I want to write down. Screw that! Too much work, call me lazy but you can have my keyboard when you pry it from my COLD DEAD.....err never mind.

Point taken though on your being "in the industry". Maybe that's why I can't see the importance of this technology....or maybe that's why you perceive it as more important than it really is? Anyway, you can be sure that if they are only $70 when they are released I will certainly buy one.

reply to post by EdSurly

Actually, what I see, is this thing being coupled with advanced voice recognition software, sort of subtle A.I. For an Excel SS you could manipulate the cells by hand, speaking what contents you want in them. Functions like AutoSum, etc. would be a snap.

Graphics and charts could be easily edited and manipulated and so on.

I'd buy that package in a heartbeat. We are heading for and are already in a "Star Trek" universe.

I'm a trekker, no costumes and fake ears, but I do love to watch it and dream. We're one step closer with this tech.

If reviews are good I will definitively be buying this. I do digital painting with my Intuos and modelling in 3D etc, this just seems like a great piece of tech to have though I doubt I would end up using it for general tasks. I have also been looking into implementing a feature into my portfolio where you can control the navigation via webcam, this looks way easier providing people start buying. If it works *as appears why not just licence it "out to major hardware companies to integrate into monitors and TV?