For Holz and Leap Motion, life can be better if we can find a way to make technology do virtually everything. The big idea was to create a computer sensor device that can support the movements of the hand and the fingers as input that works just like the mouse but required no hand contact.
Leap Motion’s controller is a USB peripheral device mounted on the computer’s USB port facing upward. With the use of three infrared LED lights and two monochromatic IR cameras, the device is capable of observing a hemispherical area within about one meter (three feet). The LED lights produce a 3D pattern from dots of IR lights. The cameras create frames from the reflected data at a speed of 300 frames per second. The data are sent to the host computer via USB cable. The Leap Motion controller software analyzes the data by comparing the 2D frames produced by the IR cameras and synthesizes the 3D position data .
Compared with other technologies in the same class, Leap Motion produces higher resolution while requiring a smaller observation area making it suitable for tracking the whole body. On top of this, Leap Motion can do website navigation, use pinch-to-zoom gestures on maps, produce high precision drawings and manipulate the most complex 3D data visualizations. CEO Michael Buckwald reported that Leap Motion has initially shipped thousands of units to interested developers.