San Francisco-based Leap Motion was scheduled to release its highly anticipated gesture control device to pre-order customers on May 13 and to the public – via Best Buy shelves – on May 19. However, the company recently announced that the release date of the $80 device has been pushed back to July 22.
Instead, the company released the preview video above, showing how it will look using the device on a Windows 8 PC. From the looks of the video, the device looks like it’s more than just a glorified mouse. It supports multiple complex finger functions, including scrolling, selecting, dragging and zooming. It even looks like it supports the use of multiple fingers at the same time.
While the video isn’t really a tutorial on how to use the device – some of the movements are unexplained – it did show a lot of possibilities. It is also impressive to see that the actual device, which is approximately 3 inches long, can detect 3D motion in the surrounding 8 cubic feet, according to a report in PC World. The device also supports multi-monitor setups, which is an interesting wrinkle.
Leap Motion also has a partnership setup with Asus and HP, which will bundle certain PCs with the gesture control device. The company also announced plans for a preview video of the device being used on a Mac.
The other well-known gesture control device, MYO, is currently still on track to hit the market close to the end of the year. As previously covered on Tier10lab, the main component of the device is a one-size-fits-all armband designed to fit on the forearm and feel like it’s not there. The device is designed to read electrical activity from your muscles to determine what your fingers are doing. It also senses all the motion and rotation of your hand.
According to the company behind MYO, Thalmic Labs, developers are already working on apps that incorporate the use of the devices’ capabilities. The company also says that developers have even approached them with new and different ideas for uses of the device.
You can see more from Thalmic Labs’ latest update in the video below.
