Leap Motion Review

[McKay]

Howdy Campers!

 

I just got my Leap Motion and set it up, so I thought I'd write off a quick review. (Picture Heavy, Warning)

 

Unboxing

 

I'll start off with a few quick unboxing photos because some folks like to see this sort of thing. Nothing extensive however. (Apologies for the differing aspect ratios, I cropped them all)

 

First up is the box itself, the usual plain, white affair with a picture of the product on the front, common for most gadgets these days.

 

 

 

Inside the box was the device itself, 2 USB Cables (1 short, 1 Long) 

 

 

 

Here is currently where I have the device set up.

 

 

 

Set up

 

Once you plug the device in, nothing happens, no driver install. You are however promoted to go to http://www.leapmotion.com/setup to install the drivers and Software.

 

 

After you install the software you are treated to a lovely visual setup, it shows you what the device can see, represented by a slick demo with great visuals, you have to put your hands over the device and wave them around, displacing the floating orbs, and leaving a visual trail from each detected fingertip. Using this demo you can position the device where it can easily detect your hands. 

 

 

Once you set up the device, you are shown your Apps, a handful will begin to download and install automatically.

 

 

From here you will notice that the device doesn't function inside the Windows environment. What you are required to do is go to the Leap Motion App Store and download an experimental app called Touchless for Windows. This is where the disappointment sets in, while the Sensor works great inside of apps that are designed for it, this experimental app is very "Hit & Miss" when it comes to detecting things. There are 2 distinct "zones" infront of the sensor. The 'Hover' Zone, where it detects movement, but wont detect it as a 'Touch' where it would act as a left click with the Mouse. When navigating using your finger in the desktop environment, the sensor will quite often lose track of your fingertip and get confused as to where it is, resulting in it rapidly going from the 'hover' zone to the 'touch' zone and back rapidly. Sometimes it'll work brilliantly for several minutes and then it'll have a techno-tantrum. Which is odd because inside of the Leap Motion apps it performs flawlessly, I never had a single hiccup, sadly most of them are overpriced games or tech demos. To test it inside of Windows 8 I downloaded Fruit Ninja and Cut the Rope from the App Store, Leap Motion worked rather well inside of Metro Apps, not quite as slick as inside Leap Apps, but better than trying to use it on the desktop. Inside the Start Screen it was a breeze too, a quick flick up with your fingers to get the "All Apps" Screen from the bottom to fly up, tiles are big enough to easily select them. I had no issues accessing the Metro controls at the screen sides using leap motion either. Inside Windows 8 it basically emulates the Touch Screen. I saw it plugged into my friends iMac, and he was able to use gestures up to five fingers for the purposes of scrolling between fullscreen apps.

 

 

Reviews for Touchless Windows aren't favourable either, with an average of 2 Stars out of 5. Most negative reviews citing the same broken features, obviously as a version one product there are bound to be some bugs, and the app is listed in the 'EXPERIMENTAL' section so I believe these'll be ironed out in the near future. 

 

 

Summary

 

It's a device that shows great promise, is it going to replace the Keyboard and mouse? No. Can it complement them? Absolutely. I enjoyed playing Fruit Ninja and other Metro Apps without a Mouse, also used a painting app from the App Store and unleashed my inner 6 year old for a happy half-hour. I'm sure it's only going to improve software-wise so I'm going to keep a hold of it.

[NateB1]

I had a slightly worse experience than you - I've been having quite a few difficulties in using it in the Windows environment, especially for gestures, and the circle onscreen indicating where my finger is located doesn't track where my finger is actually hovering over the screen (especially towards the top and bottom of my screen, but I'm willing to wait a bit for the software to improve before making a final judgment.  I can definitely see the potential in this technology, and it's really impressive how accurate it does track finger movements from such a small device.

[techbeck]

Summary

 

It's a device that shows great promise, is it going to replace the Keyboard and mouse? No. Can it complement them? Absolutely. I enjoyed playing Fruit Ninja and other Metro Apps without a Mouse, also used a painting app from the App Store and unleashed my inner 6 year old for a happy half-hour. I'm sure it's only going to improve software-wise so I'm going to keep a hold of it.

 

Thanks man.  Keep this updated when new drivers/software comes out and once you mess around with it some more.  for $80, it shows promise if done right and much cheaper than the Kinect

[McKay]

I had a slightly worse experience than you - I've been having quite a few difficulties in using it in the Windows environment, especially for gestures, and the circle onscreen indicating where my finger is located doesn't track where my finger is actually hovering over the screen (especially towards the top and bottom of my screen, but I'm willing to wait a bit for the software to improve before making a final judgment.  I can definitely see the potential in this technology, and it's really impressive how accurate it does track finger movements from such a small device.

 

 

It seems to have gotten better at tracking my finger, however it still struggles with my finger crossing over those 2 Zones. 

[Osiris]

Thanks for the impressions guys, I think this tech or any NUI tech has great promise but sounds like there is work to be done on the software side.  Still good effort from the guys for first gen, will keep an eye on this and see how it keeps improving.

[Knife Party]

nice review

[NateB1]

I think the review (especially the video ) over at Ars Technica sums up my feelings quite well.  Hilarious, too.

 

 

[ashpowell]

I was very disappointed by this.. It doesnt keep track of your fingers if you tilt your hand to one side..which from the demos they put out you'd think it would.

 

Navigating through windows with the touchless app takes twice as long as with a mouse.

 

The cut the fruit app can't even find my graphics card to run for some reason.. it's a gtx 670.

[Guest]

I am pleased i didnt go through with the pre-order for mine now, would have been a waste of cash as i would not have used it.

[bkydcmpr]

I had the same experience as the reviewer. I tried it out first on Windows 7, couldn't launch Cut the Rope at all. After the update, it is working but apparently the gesture and control were confusing and not precise. However, the issue seems up to the implementation of specific app, in some apps it worked better than the others.

[ashpowell]

http://youtu.be/fDND7oKdUzE

[streetw0lf]

Crap, crap, crap, crap.  Did I say crap?

 

Useless, worthless.  Makes everything 100 times harder than using a mouse.

 

Nice gizmo for all the geeks out there but really no practical use for it IMO.

[Rohdekill]

I thought I read that right:  the rollout delay was due to them wanted to ensure they have a quality product....

 

Buckwald claims that Leap Motion has a whopping 600,000 units of the Leap ready to go right now, but added, "Ultimately, the only way we felt 100% confident we could deliver a truly magical product that would do justice to this new form of interaction, was to push the date so we would have more time for a larger, more diverse beta test."

 

Are we to believe none of the issues people are complaining about did not come up during testing?  Seems they took the path of the times for a lot of IT companies - send out a product, collect the money, then slowly, eventually fix it.

[patseguin Global Moderator]

From the demos I saw, I thought it be a nice replacement for a touch screen monitor. Boy was I wrong.I too found out you have to download an app for that and it works terribly. After having it work terribly in everything including Google Earth, I found the Acer touchscreen monitor on sale at Best Buy for $399 and I'm returning the Leap asap.

[Dotdot]

So glad I didnt pre-order one now.

[technord]

Thanks for saving me ?100 dude!

[BertilDator]

When something sounds/looks too good to be true, it probably isn't. I like the idea of Leap Motion, and think it is the next best thing just after IllumiRoom. Hope they get their software fixed so that people don't run too far away. 

[astropheed Veteran]

It's a new form of interaction and the way in which you interact has yet to be determined. It will eventually come to rely on a gesture system that would become second nature to those willing few participants. Trying to use it as a virtual touch-screen interpreter has set this thing up for inevitable failure. Don't blame the technology, it does what it has always been known to logically do.

 

I don't have one, because I know the software isn't ready for it. I'm not going to write it off though as this is promising technology. I should support its development by purchasing one 'just cause', but I'm in no position to do so right now. Hopefully it can hang in there until I'm ready to adopt it; if not well than it probably isn't meant to be, yet.

 

I encourage those reading this review to not write it off just yet.

[TheElite]

I think it was my fault for expecting this little device to be amazing and then being disappointed by it. Still got a lot of potential though.

[Xilo]

People honestly thought gesture controls would be better than a mouse?

 

[ashpowell]

People honestly thought gesture controls would be better than a mouse?

 

 

I don't think everyone expected it to be better than a mouse, or a replacement.. I just hoped it would be more accurate than it is, or as accurate as the video displaying how effortlessly navigates

[TAZMINATOR]

People honestly thought gesture controls would be better than a mouse?

 

 

I have tried the Leap Motion controller...  it is not ready to replace the physical keyboard and a mouse but once you install LM software and ready to go... you will see virtual keyboard on the screen that docked on the edge of the screen and a keyboard button on the lock screen.

 

I use the physical keyboard for typing long letters or something like that...  LMC can be used for short time.  I have used LMC for web scrolling and click to see other sites.

 

You can use the mouse for clicking the links if you are not able to the hand gestures via LMC.

[primexx]

I just set up mine, after making Touchless auto-start (just make a shortcut to the exe in Startups folder) and restarting so Windows enables some of the touch-enabled functionality, it actually works decently in the Windows environment. I feel like the device isn't near its potential yet though and people will have to figure out how to use an interface like this.

[:: Lyon ::]

Wondering how it is now after a few months have passed.. Have they updated the firmware or release apps that can take advantage of the Leap Motion yet?

[whitehatworld]

It seems to have gotten better at tracking my finger, however it still struggles with my finger crossing over those 2 Zones.