I may be new to this party, but it sure looks like a cool one. It’s the Leap Motion gesture control system — a $70 device that’s scheduled for release some time this winter. Technology Review described it as The Most Important New Technology Since the Smart Phone. That may be a bit strong, but…
The device, which connects to your computer, gives you a 3D volume that’s able to track your individual fingers, or objects you may be holding — 200 times more accurately than the Kinect.
It’s cool to see how you can do the usual pinch to zoom, and toss to scroll gestures. But what looks most promising is the fluidness in which you can intuitively interact with complex 3D environments — places where you’d previously have to master a complex input device, or switch between numerous interaction modes.
The Atlantic (in a fun article on the future of phones) describes how fundamental this change may be:
It’s that prepositional change — in not on, into not on — that signals a major shift in how we might actually come to feel about computing in general. Somehow, a 3D environment becomes much more real when you can manipulate it like a physical space.
For more info see these articles at The Verge and Forbes.