Leap Motion Sends 10,000 Units To Developers Along With SDK

By: Talha Bhatti  |   December 19th, 2012   |   Business, News

Leap Motion is shipping out 10,000 Leap units to developers so that they can create applications that use the companies gesture based input device. San Francisco-based Leap Motion has put its hardware in limited production as 40,000 developers are looking to work with the new device.

 

Leap Motion is offering its product at $70 in pre-order and is expected to have the units out by early 2013. The small unit is kept in front of a computer or laptop and gives the user the ability to control the computing device with hand gestures. The possibilities are endless and features include zooming in or out , rotating 3D objects and drawing.

 

Leap Motion’s decision to deliver the device to developers first is an attempt at creating a robust app and software ecosystem before regular users start buying the product. The startup also released a SDK along with the developer units so that gesture-aware apps could be created faster. Leap Motion co-founder and CEO Michael Buckwald states that, “Our top priority is making sure that when the Leap Motion controller ships to consumers, it is supported by a wide array of quality apps.”

 

The SDK’s most developer friendly feature is its library of pre-defined interaction APIs. That means that a developer does not need to define the hand gestures which are already part of the SDK. All they need to do is show what the hand gesture should control or what actions need to take place.

 

There will also be an app store from which developers can sell their creations. This will come with the Leap device so users can easily access the store and get exactly the apps they need.

 

Major programs like Microsoft Office or browsers like Chrome have not announced if they will support Leap gesture systems as yet, however hopefully the devices generate enough buzz to make that a reality.

 

Source: Venture Beat