Leap Motion

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This article is about the motion-sensing technology company. For the physical movement, see jumping.

Leap Motion, Inc.

Industry

Motion Control

Founded

2010

Founder(s)

Michael Buckwald David Holz

Headquarters San Francisco, California, United States

Website

LeapMotion.com

Leap Motion, Inc. is an American company that manufactures and markets a computer hardware sensor device that supports hand and finger motions as input, analogous to a mouse, but requiring no hand contact or touching.
Contents

1 History 2 Airspace 3 Hardware Partnerships 4 Retail Partnerships 5 Technology

6 Developer Community 7 Reception 8 References 9 External links

History
Founded in 2010 as OcuSpec, the company raised a $1.3M seed financing round in June 2011 with investments from venture capital firmsAndreessen Horowitz and Founders Fund, SOSventures as well as several angel investors.[1] In May 2012, Leap Motion announced a $12.75M Series A funding round led by Highland Capital Partners. [2] In January 2013, Leap Motion announced a further series B round of funding for $30M. [3]After operating in quietly since 2010 Leap Motion publicly announced its first product, originally called The Leap, on May 21, 2012. The device started full-scale shipping in July 2013.[4]

Airspace[
Leap Motion has an app store called Airspace where it sells apps made by developers. the LA Times reported that Airspace had reached 150 apps. [7]
[5][6]

In November 2013,

Hardware Partnerships
Leap Motion has partnered with ASUS who is expected to ship high-end notebooks, and all-in-one PCs (AIO PCs) with the technology later in 2013.[8] Leap Motion also announced a deal withHewlett Packard to embed its technology within HP computers.[9] In December 2013, it was reported Leap Motion would be embedded into eleven HP devices, including keyboards and laptops.[10]

Retail Partnerships[
Leap Motion has formed retail partnerships with Best Buy, Newegg.com, and Amazon.com. [11] Leap Motion controllers are sold by Dick Smith (retailer) in Australia and New Zealand.[12][13]

Technology[
The Leap Motion controller is a small USB peripheral device which is designed to be placed on a physical desktop, facing upward. Using two monochromatic IR cameras and three infrared LEDs, the device observes a roughly hemispherical area, to a distance of about 1 meter (3 feet). The LEDs generate a 3D pattern of dots of IR light[14] and the cameras generate almost 300 frames per second of reflected data, which is then sent through a USB cable to the host computer, where it is analyzed by the Leap Motion controller software using "complex math" in a way that has not been disclosed by the company, in some way synthesizing 3D position data by comparing the 2D frames generated by the two cameras.[15][16]

The smaller observation area and higher resolution of the device differentiates the product from the Kinect, which is more suitable for whole-body tracking in a space the size of a living room.[17] In a demonstration to CNET, The Leap was shown to perform tasks such as navigating a website, using pinch-to-zoom gestures on maps, high-precision drawing, and manipulating complex 3D data visualizations.[17] Leap Motion CEO Michael Buckwald told CNET: Leap Motion initially distributed thousands of units to developers who are interested in creating applications for the device. The Leap Motion controller was first shipped in July, 2013.[4]

Developer Community[
In December 2013, Founders Fund and SOSVentures announced the Leap Axlr8r, a business accelerator for startups making innovative use of the Leap Motion controller.[18]

Reception[
On July 22, 2013, the Leap Motion Controller was released to pre-order customers to mixed reviews.[19][20] To some[who?], the product feels underwhelming and does not live up to the hype. It is an "admirable distraction but not useful for truly productive usage" and to some it feels as though they "experienced a gimmick". Many[who?] remain optimistic about the product's success and innovation.[21][22][23]