5 ms·

as a side note. Consider how many positions you can put your fingers into. Now both hands? Now imagine if each position was mapped to a different shortcut...

as a side note. Consider how many positions you can put your fingers into. Now both hands? Now imagine if each position was mapped to a different shortcut... How many unique positions could you map? (compare to keyboard).

patrickk 14y ago
Imagine surgeons who can't touch a surface with his/her hands due to hygiene concerns using it to manipulate various images/scans of the patient on the table in front of him/her.
- Zolomon 14y ago
  You mean like http://www.zdnet.com/blog/health/xbox-kinect-helps-surgeons-in-the-operating-room/277 http://www.zdnet.com/blog/health/xbox-kinect-helps-surgeons-... and http://www.bgr.com/2012/05/18/microsoft-kinect-surgery-surgical-assistant-testing/ http://www.bgr.com/2012/05/18/microsoft-kinect-surgery-surgi... ?
  - patrickk 14y ago
    Well yes. If multiple solutions gain traction, it just proves that there is a market for this kind of thing. It's not about being first, it's about executing well. If Leap is more accurate for tracking movement, it could prove more suitable than the kinect.
vibrunazo 14y ago
I bet someone, somewhere is already planning an app where you downvote a post by flipping the finger.
- mike-cardwell 14y ago
  Surely that would be a thumbs up/down motion in the manner that Romans used to decide the fate of gladiators.
  - intended 14y ago
    Honestly a lot of gestures based controls of the floating in mid air kind are prone to tiring you out. I suspect that unless there is some form of support, this may be like drinking Pepsi: Sweet on the first sip, but after a while, not as great.
gcr 14y ago
Stenography machines have at least 22 keys. You can press any combination of them simultaneously, so over 4.19 million. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stenotype http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stenotype
blahedo 14y ago
The problem is one of digital vs analogue, and ballistic vs servo. On a keyboard, you either press or do not press a key, and assuming that your finger is aimed somewhere in the right box, you need no visual feedback to see where it is and which thing you're touching. You also get the tactile feedback of "yes I hit the key", "I hit the key but it was at the edge, better recalibrate", etc. So while there are a basically continuous range of positions you can put your fingers into (and with fifty or so degrees of freedom), the differences between many similar positions are subtle and require feedback for you to see which of them you're in---looping in your visual system and slowing down the interaction considerably. Which is what you want for certain sorts of continuous-ish interactions, and not at all what you want for certain sorts of digital-ish interactions. All of which is to say, this sounds suuuuuper cool, but it's not going to replace the keyboard.

patrickk 14y ago

Imagine surgeons who can't touch a surface with his/her hands due to hygiene concerns using it to manipulate various images/scans of the patient on the table in front of him/her.

Zolomon 14y ago
You mean like http://www.zdnet.com/blog/health/xbox-kinect-helps-surgeons-in-the-operating-room/277 http://www.zdnet.com/blog/health/xbox-kinect-helps-surgeons-... and http://www.bgr.com/2012/05/18/microsoft-kinect-surgery-surgical-assistant-testing/ http://www.bgr.com/2012/05/18/microsoft-kinect-surgery-surgi... ?
- patrickk 14y ago
  Well yes. If multiple solutions gain traction, it just proves that there is a market for this kind of thing. It's not about being first, it's about executing well. If Leap is more accurate for tracking movement, it could prove more suitable than the kinect.

vibrunazo 14y ago

I bet someone, somewhere is already planning an app where you downvote a post by flipping the finger.

mike-cardwell 14y ago
Surely that would be a thumbs up/down motion in the manner that Romans used to decide the fate of gladiators.
- intended 14y ago
  Honestly a lot of gestures based controls of the floating in mid air kind are prone to tiring you out. I suspect that unless there is some form of support, this may be like drinking Pepsi: Sweet on the first sip, but after a while, not as great.

gcr 14y ago

Stenography machines have at least 22 keys. You can press any combination of them simultaneously, so over 4.19 million. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stenotype http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stenotype

blahedo 14y ago

The problem is one of digital vs analogue, and ballistic vs servo. On a keyboard, you either press or do not press a key, and assuming that your finger is aimed somewhere in the right box, you need no visual feedback to see where it is and which thing you're touching. You also get the tactile feedback of "yes I hit the key", "I hit the key but it was at the edge, better recalibrate", etc. So while there are a basically continuous range of positions you can put your fingers into (and with fifty or so degrees of freedom), the differences between many similar positions are subtle and require feedback for you to see which of them you're in---looping in your visual system and slowing down the interaction considerably. Which is what you want for certain sorts of continuous-ish interactions, and not at all what you want for certain sorts of digital-ish interactions. All of which is to say, this sounds suuuuuper cool, but it's not going to replace the keyboard.