Words: Younique Concepts
You don’t have to be a geek to appreciate truly cool tech. And while motion-controls have been limited to playing tennis on the Wii and turning media players on with the Microsoft Kinect until now, a new device is going where no device has gone before: true gesture controlled computing.
Imagine being able to sculpt, mould, stretch, bend, and build virtual 3D objects. Take things apart and put them back together. Reach into the universe, grab the stars, and soar around the sun. The Leap Motion Controller allows all of this and more. Users can browse the web, read articles, flip through photos, and play music just by lifting a finger; draw, paint, and design with a fingertip; slice falling fruit and shoot bad guys, steer cars and fly planes with your hands.
This sleek, light, and tiny piece of hardware takes up hardly any space on your desk, and opens up an interactive, three-dimensional space above. This allows you to use the space between you and your computer to turn computing into a truly interactive 3D experience.
The Leap Motion Controller tracks all 10 fingers up to 1/100th of a millimetre, and offers a super-wide 150° field of view and a Z-axis for depth. The Leap Motion Controller can track movements at a rate of over 200 frames per second.
And while you might think that feeling like Tony Stark will come with a hefty price tag, you’re wrong. At a recommended retail price of R1299, this futuristic tech is easily accessible to anyone who wants to do almost anything without touching anything.
Specialist distribution house Phoenix Distribution is launching the Leap Motion Controller exclusively through Incredible Connection, with availability from the end of October 2013.
“With Christmas around the corner, we wanted to bring this must-have piece of technology to South African consumers, and our long-term relationship with Incredible Connection provided the perfect platform to do so,” Simon Campbell-Young, CEO of Phoenix Distribution, says. “Since its international launch in July, the Leap Motion Controller has been making waves, and with its extremely cost-effective price point, wide variety of applications and ability to work with both PC and Macs, I believe that it will prove just as popular locally.”
Leap Motion explains that the company has partnered with Phoenix Distribution as a result of the company’s expertise in the retail space, and that with more than 1 million apps having been downloaded from Leap Motion's Airspace Store in less than six months, South African consumers can look forward to an entirely new way of thinking about digital interaction.
Sean Nelson – Merchandise Executive at Incredible Connection adds that customers will be pleasantly surprised at how easy the Leap Motion Controller is to set up and use, and that the product is a great addition to the premium brands offered by the retailer.
The Leap Motion Controller doesn’t replace the keyboard, mouse, stylus, or trackpad on a computer, rather working with them, and without special adapters. “This is the next generation of computer interaction. The Leap Motion Controller puts the world at your fingertips, making computing more intuitive and simpler than a mouse or touchscreen ever could,” Campbell-Young concludes.
The Leap Motion is available for R1299 at Incredible Connection stores or on their website: www.incredible.co.za.
