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I saw that Leap Motion [0] video almost 10 years ago and have wanted to have one ever since. Sadly, it seems they didn't sell enough to sustain theirselves and

I saw that Leap Motion [0] video almost 10 years ago and have wanted to have one ever since. Sadly, it seems they didn't sell enough to sustain theirselves and have mostly concluded their incredible journey [1]. I had a few friends that worked in 3D modelling them and they really wanted to try it out for sculpting. I guess actually swinging your hands around in air like Tom Cruise in Minority Report was too tiring for most people. I wish Apple had bought them and integrated them into the macbooks instead of the touchbar. [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leap_Motion https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leap_Motion [1]: https://www.ultraleap.com/product/leap-motion-controller/ https://www.ultraleap.com/product/leap-motion-controller/

zingplex 6y ago
The Leap Motion is still on sale. https://www.ultraleap.com/product/leap-motion-controller/ https://www.ultraleap.com/product/leap-motion-controller/ I had one when they first came out and while the tracking accuracy was quite good, it wasn't good enough for doing any precision work. Every so often the tracking would skip and glitch.
johnwalkr 6y ago
I remember being really annoyed at the reaction to that video. Here's 2 headlines from the first page of hits: "Elon Musk Waves His Hand and Designs Rocket Parts Out of Thin Air" and "Elon Musk to build rocket ship parts with hand movements through the air, and 3D printing". His tweet before that video was "We figured out how to design rocket parts just w hand movements through the air (seriously). Now need a high frame rate holograph generator. Will post video next week of designing a rocket part with hand gestures & then immediately printing it in titanium". That's really disingenuous. First of all, it looks like a typical demo made by an intern and some toys. Second, mechanical engineers don't need or want that type of interface. Actually manipulating and rotating CAD is such a small part of the process the time sink (aside from all the design and documentation aside from CAD) is adding dimensions and relations to geometry and relations. This video is the equivalent of a software developer's manager showing off a visual programming language and declaring text-based languages and keyboards are obsolete.
vsareto 6y ago
>try it out for sculpting. I bet the Index has potential for that with the finger control
tootie 6y ago
Leap Motion was recently acquired by a company that builds ultrasonic haptic devices. The standalone USB Leap Motion sensor is still available for like $80. I've done some work with it (and the haptic device) and it's extremely underwhelming. It's equivalent to voice dictation versus typing. It feels miraculous at first but there's a lot of edge cases (like hands going vertical or occlusion) and there's simply no good UX patterns for gestures. Keyboard and mouse is faster and more accurate in 99% of scenarios. Google actually one-upped Leap Motion with Project Soli that's in the new Pixel phones It can track minute finger gestures in a much smaller form factor using radar. It similarly doesn't have any killer app that actually makes it useful for much of anything.

zingplex 6y ago

The Leap Motion is still on sale. https://www.ultraleap.com/product/leap-motion-controller/ https://www.ultraleap.com/product/leap-motion-controller/ I had one when they first came out and while the tracking accuracy was quite good, it wasn't good enough for doing any precision work. Every so often the tracking would skip and glitch.

johnwalkr 6y ago

I remember being really annoyed at the reaction to that video. Here's 2 headlines from the first page of hits: "Elon Musk Waves His Hand and Designs Rocket Parts Out of Thin Air" and "Elon Musk to build rocket ship parts with hand movements through the air, and 3D printing". His tweet before that video was "We figured out how to design rocket parts just w hand movements through the air (seriously). Now need a high frame rate holograph generator. Will post video next week of designing a rocket part with hand gestures & then immediately printing it in titanium". That's really disingenuous. First of all, it looks like a typical demo made by an intern and some toys. Second, mechanical engineers don't need or want that type of interface. Actually manipulating and rotating CAD is such a small part of the process the time sink (aside from all the design and documentation aside from CAD) is adding dimensions and relations to geometry and relations. This video is the equivalent of a software developer's manager showing off a visual programming language and declaring text-based languages and keyboards are obsolete.

vsareto 6y ago

>try it out for sculpting. I bet the Index has potential for that with the finger control

tootie 6y ago

Leap Motion was recently acquired by a company that builds ultrasonic haptic devices. The standalone USB Leap Motion sensor is still available for like $80. I've done some work with it (and the haptic device) and it's extremely underwhelming. It's equivalent to voice dictation versus typing. It feels miraculous at first but there's a lot of edge cases (like hands going vertical or occlusion) and there's simply no good UX patterns for gestures. Keyboard and mouse is faster and more accurate in 99% of scenarios. Google actually one-upped Leap Motion with Project Soli that's in the new Pixel phones It can track minute finger gestures in a much smaller form factor using radar. It similarly doesn't have any killer app that actually makes it useful for much of anything.