Since Steven Spielberg expertly crafted it a decade ago, the world has been clamoring for a user interface similar to what was found in sci-fi thriller Minority Report. Even the inkling of flipping through applications and swiping screens in mid-air made geeks tingle all over, but aside from expertly developed hacks on the Xbox Kinect, nothing definitive seemed to break through and truly give the public that enticing functionality of the future.
That is, until now. After more than five years of development, a proprietary technology has emerged that synthesizes the shape and movement of the human hand to produce movement onto a computer. It’s called The Leap — and for an astonishingly low price of $70, you can begin to control a computer with nothing more than your hands, as early as next February.
“We really wanted to build a device that would actually be leaps and bounds better at doing a lot of things that most people want to do with their computers,” says Leap Motion CEO Michael Buckwald. “And in order to do that, you need to be able to track fingers, and you need to be able to do that at a deep, centimeter level.”
Mashable spoke with Buckwald about the journey his company took to develop The Leap and bring it to market, as well as an inside look on how it works and what we can expect come February.
Elie Chahine 