Gadgetory

imagine a computer that could see and understand your hand gestures that touchless interface is possible with a new controller from San Francisco startup leap motion inside the device there are two cameras and some infrared LEDs and those are projecting a light onto the hand and that video is getting sent to the computer where our software analyzes it and extracts the 3d information instead of clicking on an object with a mouse or touching a screen you can point to it with your finger in Google Maps users zoom in and out by moving their hand up and down that could prove easier than clicking on tiny control buttons you know you can do all this with a keyboard mouse but you know you wouldn't be able to do it nearly as fluidly the controller can't track your every move gestures must be within two feet of the device but in that zone the technology is remarkably accurate so this is a one centimeter square that I'm zooming in on in space so you can see even this one centimeter square and stay incredibly precise at eighty dollars the controller is affordable but what can you do with it roughly 75 apps are available to start with a heavy emphasis on games like drop chord a puzzle game and block 54 which presents Jenga like challenges this is really something that you couldn't do with a mouse or keyboard right because it uses all the data that the controller provides and it captures every little jitter of your fingers there are educational and drawing offerings to don't expect a lot of productivity apps however leap motion says it's not out to replace the keyboard or mouse everyone has a desktop or a laptop and these are very powerful machines but people only use one percent of them we're hoping that we can let them use the other ninety-nine percent to learn a musical instrument or play a game or build something one potential hurdle users face is having to remember various gestures there definitely is a learning curve as you go from app to app because even though our philosophy is about making the interaction as close to real life as possible every developer is approaching it in a slightly different way the technology will also be embedded in laptops down the road leap motion is partnering with HP and Asus still the bigger question is will consumers buy applications for yet another platform when there are so many others competing for their money in San Francisco I'm Sumi das cnet.com for CBS News