Thread: Leap Motion Coming in 2013

Great find, pre-ordered one to try out.

Originally Posted by rray

Great find, pre-ordered one to try out.

Cool. I'm preordering mine this week too.

Sent from my DROID BIONIC using Tapatalk 2

Just to be clear, I am taking the safety concerns seriously. I do believe in driving with both hands on the wheel and looking at the traffic and road while driving. What I am proposing is for car PC enthusiasts, but a proper implementation of the device, not wild golf swings or fishing pole casts like a Wii game controller, but subtle thumb codes detected from close to steering wheel.

What I'm thinking for the car PC project is to mount the controller where it can see the back of the steering wheel, and It would detect thumb up/down gestures. With my hands on the steering wheel at 10 and 2, I can raise my thumbs up and down, and depending on the sequence and timing, certain functions that are not on my steering wheel control are performed.

This is provided the device can detect such movements, the thumb control utility runs upon PC startup, and looks for 2 streams of data pulses (left and right thumb) on an as yet undetermined timing sequence. A new command is detected when the left thumb goes up and down say 3 times, then a audible "beep" is heard to confirm the start, and a several second command timer to look for thumb code of left and right . At the end of timer, an audible decode command is played "Do you want me to XXXX" and you have a second to respond with your left thumb or command is ignored.

Then it's just a matter of defining the codes and commands as desired.

Oh, by the way, the device can also be used to do other "Minority Report" things at the same time, like say you have a mirror image screen projecting OBD2 stuff at your winshield, an HUD if you will... You can take a hand off the steering wheel, reach up to the windshield and slide the HUD to the next or previous screen, and stuff like that.

Any ideas along this line?

Originally Posted by rray

I do believe in driving with both hands on the wheel

You do?

I don't.

The only time I'l have two hands on the wheel is

1. On a Track
2. In a Go-Kart, on a track
3. Mario Kart Wii.


Oh and

4. When changing a tyre

haha! My car drives like a go cart... really! I learned that fast the first week I got it, coasting down the freeway at 100 trying to keep up with the flow!

Originally Posted by rray

This is provided the device can detect such movements, the thumb control utility runs upon PC startup, and looks for 2 streams of data pulses (left and right thumb) on an as yet undetermined timing sequence. A new command is detected when the left thumb goes up and down say 3 times, then a audible "beep" is heard to confirm the start, and a several second command timer to look for thumb code of left and right . At the end of timer, an audible decode command is played "Do you want me to XXXX" and you have a second to respond with your left thumb or command is ignored.

The device is marketed as being able to perform with small motions such as doing a digital signature using a pen. So I would think that thumb movements would work as well. It will be interesting to test this out. The only thing I am wondering is if it needs any specific drivers or software or if it just connects to standard USB with PnP much like a mouse.

I suspect it needs drivers, because I read a post on their forum saying they support windows 7 on, but no XP driver would be offered. I could not find is any difinitive release date though.

Along with other possibilities could this also be an answer to fitting a standard 15" to 17" Wide-screen display in portrait mode into a Vehicle without being tied to overpriced large touch screens models. Apparently there' s already an app to work with Win8 as a full touch screen replacement.

EDIT1: Looks like it may work out of the box with Win7-8 as a touch screen interface, possibility without drivers from what I can gleam. EDIT2: To do all the fancy stuff and/with application specific control would require drivers of course.

Things keep getting better for Leap Motion, the little startup whose 3D motion controller gizmo could be one of the hottest products of 2013. The San Francisco-based company has struck a deal with Asus, which will bundle the Leap Motion controller with laptops and all-in-one PCs.

http://readwrite.com/2013/01/03/leap...gains-momentum


When looking for info on using this as a simple Touch screen controller I read mention of placing the unit close to the one edge of the screen (for this basic mode), I would think this would act like an infrared position detector in this basic mode (Yes I know it can do sooooo much more and acts differently in other modes). I see more than one unit can be used at once. I could use one for a basic touch screen replacement but without the cost, light output loss and smudging that goes with bonding a touch panel and touching the panel. The other could do something like rray posted with thumb control from the steering wheel.