First off, this is not going to be my formal review of the Leap. Given that it’s only been out for a week, I think it’s still a bit early for a formal review. So instead, this will simply be my thoughts on it after using it for a week.
- Finding the right spot is really important. Leap has now published a set of ergonomics to their website that are worth the quick read. Trust me, you arms get pretty tired after using the Leap for a while.
- It’s range is insanely generous. I’ve now placed mine above and behind my keyboard and it detects my fingers over my keyboard if I raise them to the Leap’s height. It’s range seems to get wider as you raise your finger higher.
- There are three red lights in the Leap that get brighter when something enters its field of vision.
- Setup is insanely easy: unbox, download software, plug it in.
- It doesn’t track bent fingers well: you can bend a finger a bit and the Leap will still see it, but not for long.
- Take off your Fuelband and Pebble. The Leap goes nuts if either enter its view (four hands anyone?).
- From Airspace, you can download an app that makes your finger your mouse cursor. My first thought was “why is not one of the pre-loaded apps?” Well…. that became obvious quickly. Good luck with accurate clicking on anything small (read: most of the buttons to control windows on OS X). Now, let me elaborate on this: the Leap is quite accurate, too generously accurate. I found the tracking to be way too sensitive.
- Cut The Rope is included with the Leap and probably the best proof of concept I’ve seen so far. The Leap comes with a number of other apps that are pretty much fancy visualizers that get old pretty quickly.
- Airspace is growing, but most of the apps are still paid.
The Leap has already gotten two software updates in the first week alone. Personally, I don’t see that as a bad thing. I think that as the Leap finds its way into the hands of more people, it will get better. It does have a learning curve similar to that of learning how to use the Kinect. Personally, I’m still getting used to it. Bottom line, I’m happy with the first week. I think it’s still too early to tell though just how powerful of a device the Leap may be. It is by far the smallest motion tracking device I’ve seen and played with yet and its accuracy does seem to be pretty good.
For the unboxing and a short demo of it, head on over to YouTube.