Watch People Use Leap Motion's Gesture Controller for the First Time

What's This?

By Pete Pachal2013-07-27 15:27:31 UTC

When computers were new, people interacted with them via punch cards. Then came the keyboard, and soon after, the mouse. More recently, touchscreens have become another way we interface with devices. But what's next?

Leap Motion, a motion-sensing technology company, believes it's gestures. Through an $80 device, available now, anyone can add motion control to their Mac or PC. The company's controller is a tiny gadget that sits in front of your monitor, and can detect your hand gestures with high precision (its creators say it can give Microsoft Kinect a run for its money).

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Leap Motion says waving your fingers through the air is a very "natural" way of controlling a device, but how will people who have spent their entire lives interacting with computers through traditional interfaces react to the brave new world of gesture control?

We decided to find out. We put five Mashable interns in front of a MacBook Pro with the Leap Motion controller, one at a time, with no training — and no warning. Would they be taken in by the promise of a Minority Report-like future, or end up yanking the Leap out of its USB port in disgust?

Check out how the Leap scored in the video, above. Then let us know what you think of the tech in the comments.