Controlling Your Computer With A Wave Of Your Hand

Festival attendees experiment with Leap Motion technology.

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STEVE INSKEEP, HOST: OK. No matter how you get to work, if you sit in front of a computer screen, once you get there you may face the pain of the dreaded mouse. Clicking away all day long can lead to some pretty serious wrist and problems for some people. And a tech company is now promising to alleviate that.

This spring, a new motion sensing device will go on sale that will makes it possible for the average computer user to browse the Web and open documents with a wave of the finger. Which finger?

Anyway, NPR's Laura Sydell is in Austin at the South by Southwest Interactive conference where she got an opportunity to try the Leap Motion Controller.

LAURA SYDELL, BYLINE: Twenty-six thousand people have converged on Austin to see emerging tech companies. One of the most talked about startups is Leap Motion.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

SYDELL: For the first time, people here can try the company's Motion Controller. I went to have a look. The controller is not much bigger than a matchbox. The company had it sitting about a foot and a half away from the front of a big iMac computer. It connects with a USB cord.

So I'm putting my fingers in front of the Leap Motion sensor and I can see the movement on my fingers on the screen.

They had a game of "Fruit Ninja" up. The object is to destroy pieces of fruit. And I'm moving my fingers around and I am able to hit pieces of fruit with a finger from a foot in a half away. It just works.

But, this motion controller can be used for more than just games.

Michael Zagorsek is Leap's VP of Marketing.

MICHAEL ZAGORSEK: Out of the box, you'll be able to control your computer very simply. You'll be able to browse the Internet and scroll. So a lot of the things people are used to, they can now do in the air without touching anything.

SYDELL: The Leap represents another step in a goal of computer scientists, which is to make interactions with machines feel natural and easy - to take away the barriers between humans and computers.

Michael Buckwald is the company's CEO and co-founder.

MICHAEL BUCKWALD: Hundreds of times a day I reach out and grab things, and if you think about it, that act of reaching out and grabbing is very complicated. But I'm able to do it hundreds of times a day without thinking and without ever failing, and we want to bring that intuition to interacting with the computer.

SYDELL: You can in fact pull, grab, and use pinching motions in the air, which the Leap will detect. But, it's not natural enough for everyone.

SARAH ALLEN: One of the things that I've always wanted to do is open up my computer by waving my arms in the air in a big yoga salute. And this is never going to do that.

SYDELL: That's programmer Sarah Allen who came along to try the Leap. Allen notes that Microsoft's Kinect, for games, allows that kind of motion with a TV. Co-founder Buckwald says his company is aiming for something different.

BUCKWALD: The Kinect is for the living room; it is for gross movements, doesn't track fingers. The Leap has a smaller interaction area but is for multiple fingers, more nuanced types of interaction.

SYDELL: Allen definitely sees the potential here. Leap also showed off a program that lets you manipulate 3D images on your computer using your fingers. It's like working with a chunk of virtual clay. Allen says when more people have 3D printers that allow you to make personalized objects from your computer...

ALLEN: Then you can imagine that you want a vase, and you're going to go to your virtual potting app, and then you can interact with it and create something kind of fun and delightful.

SYDELL: But that will take a lot of programmers like her developing apps for the Leap and 3D printers. CEO Buckwald says they have thousands of programmers already developing for the Leap.

And analysts say the cost of the Leap Motion Controller - 80 bucks - and the fact that you can add it to both Mac and Windows computers makes it very appealing. But, when it comes out in May, analysts say what will really matter is not the applications to come but the ones you have when you open the box.

Laura Sydell, NPR News, Austin, Texas.

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