MAKE at CES 2013: Hands on with the Leap Motion Controller

Computers & Mobile
MAKE at CES 2013: Hands on with the Leap Motion Controller

YouTube player

MAKE_Conference_Badge-CESThey say you can’t judge a book by its cover, which is especially true on the floor of CES. Some of the most nondescript booths have some of the most amazing things and some of the largest, glitziest booths show nothing but ho-hum technology. In the former category, you have Leap Motion. Tucked in the back of one of the smaller halls, they only have a pair of conference rooms and a small sign with their company logo. It becomes clear that you probably need to have an appointment to see what’s going on inside. But that doesn’t stop people from trying to get a look, especially since Leap Motion is on the brink of releasing a product that technology enthusiasts are eager to get their hands on.

The Leap Motion Controller, a motion sensing human input device for computers, was first unveiled in a video last May and the excitement for it was viral. Since then, their engineers have been working with a select group of third party developers to create software so that the product can have commercial success when it’s released at the end of this quarter. But that doesn’t mean that small developers and hackers are locked out. Along with the release of the peripheral, they’ll be opening up their SDK for anyone to play around with it. According to Michael Zagorsek, the company’s Vice President of Product Marketing, they want “people to go far and wide and do whatever they can with it.” Check out the video above to see a demo of the technology and hear about their strategy for releasing a product that’s open to developers.

26 thoughts on “MAKE at CES 2013: Hands on with the Leap Motion Controller

  1. MAKE | MAKE at CES 2013: So Long, CES! says:

    […] to vehicular data. I also had the chance to sit down with the folks at Leap Motion not only to get a demonstration of their Leap Motion Controller, but to gain a better understanding of the compa…. The outlook is good: when their product launches within the next few months, we should expect to […]

  2. Smith says:

    SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY

  3. rocketguy1701 says:

    Took my money last May, can’t wait to see what this does to the 3D modeling landscape. The biggest inhibitor to using my 3D printer to it’s full capacity is the absurd difficulty with the current state of UI in 3D modeling. Nothing is remotely as easy as it could be.

  4. Jack Van Gossen says:

    Would love to see this as a 3D mouse for SolidWorks. Would make life much easier.

  5. Jim Gage says:

    Minecraft…

  6. Barton says:

    Awesome! Use LEAP to change the future of TV as we know it! Now I’d like to see that! http://www.bemyapp.com/tvhack/

  7. MAKE | Hacking on the Frontier of Gestural Input says:

    […] their SDK, taking a decidedly different tack than Microsoft initially took with the Kinect. At CES, I was able to take a closer look at the device and hear what the company thought of makers working with their product. Michael Zagorsek, the […]

  8. MAKE | MAKE at the Game Developers Conference says:

    […] any emerging VR technologies, like Oculus Rift, gestural interface controllers, like the promising Leap Motion, and the inevitable Kinect hacks that will be populating the Expo floor starting […]

  9. MAKE at the Game Developers Conference - IT Clips says:

    […] any emerging VR technologies, like Oculus Rift, gestural interface controllers, like the promising Leap Motion, and the inevitable Kinect hacks that will be populating the Expo floor starting […]

  10. Fog Projection Combined with Gestural Interface to Create “Hologram Touchscreen” | MAKE says:

    […] a gestural interface (like the Leap Motion controller), and you can interact with the vaporous image like a kind of ethereal touchscreen, as in this […]

  11. De Ingenieurs | Fog Projection says:

    […] Riders pass through the illusion without actually getting wet. Add a gestural interface (like the Leap Motion controller), and you can interact with the vaporous image like a kind of ethereal touchscreen, as in this […]

  12. De Ingenieurs | Fog Projection with gestural interface says:

    […] Riders pass through the illusion without actually getting wet. Add a gestural interface (like the Leap Motion controller), and you can interact with the vaporous image like a kind of ethereal touchscreen, as in this […]

  13. 안개 프로젝션과 제스처 인터페이스를 결합해 만든 홀로그램 터치스크린 | Make: Korea says:

    […] (Leap Motion 컨트롤러 등의) 제스처 인터페이스를 추가하면 샌프란시스코의 스타트업 AerScreen이 제작한 동영상처럼 신기한 터치스크린을 만지는 것처럼 수증기로 이루어진 이미지와 상호작용할 수 있습니다. […]

Comments are closed.

Discuss this article with the rest of the community on our Discord server!
Tagged

Matt Richardson is a San Francisco-based creative technologist and Contributing Editor at MAKE. He’s the co-author of Getting Started with Raspberry Pi and the author of Getting Started with BeagleBone.

View more articles by Matt Richardson

ADVERTISEMENT

Maker Faire Bay Area 2023 - Mare Island, CA

Escape to an island of imagination + innovation as Maker Faire Bay Area returns for its 15th iteration!

Buy Tickets today! SAVE 15% and lock-in your preferred date(s).

FEEDBACK