Photo courtesy of leapmotion.com

Most devices we currently know operate on a yearly cycle. Apple releases a new iPad every year or so, Galaxy a new smartphone, and so on and so forth. Although every year most tech companies claim to introduce some “never-before-seen feature,” most of this “ground-breaking technology” is just the old stuff, somehow redesigned to make the old version seem obsolete. However this past July, a new company titled “Leap Motion” truly did reinvent human-technology communication.

Leap Motion’s technology focuses on making use of the big gap between you and your computer screen. All that’s required is a small, pocket-sized device sitting between you and your computer. When plugged in via USB, the sensor will pick up just about any 3D hand motion and translate it into an action on your computer.

For example, instead of using a physical mouse, you can now just move your finger about the open space in front of you and tap your finger forward to click. The Leap website claims that their product uses 8 cubic feet of space with 10-finger tracking accuracy of up to 1/100th of a millimeter at 200 frames per second.

Additionally, Leap has designed “Airspace,” the device’s own application desktop. From here, the user can access the “Airspace Store” in addition to any apps downloaded. While not as extensive as Apple’s App Store, the Airspace Store currently offers approximately 100 apps, with more being added on a weekly basis. The apps range from interactive gaming like “Cut the Rope,” to entertainment like “Airharp” and “Airbeats,” and to education like “Frog Dissection.”

As this all seemed appealing (and relatively cheap at less than $80), I decided to get one and try it out for myself. I must say, as of now, my experience with the Leap Motion isn’t too bad. It certainly took some time to learn the motions the device accepts or doesn’t, but that doesn’t mean I couldn’t enjoy it.

In my opinion, the device shouldn’t be categorized as a productivity tool. For now, it is more of a creativity and “just for fun” tool. Though many may not yet be aware of its existence, I believe that there is great potential within this product and that in a few years, it will be significantly more common. After all, it takes some guts to introduce such a new field of technology. Nobody should expect such a thing to be perfected immediately.

But for now, I respect the technological geniuses at Leap for their extensive work on the palm-sized device and wish them the best of luck in further advancing its capabilities.