Book Image

Leap Motion Development Essentials

By : Mischa Spiegelmock
Book Image

Leap Motion Development Essentials

By: Mischa Spiegelmock

Overview of this book

Leap Motion is a company developing advanced motion sensing technology for human–computer interaction. Originally inspired by the level of difficulty of using a mouse and keyboard for 3D modeling, Leap Motion believe that moulding virtual clay should be as easy as moulding clay in your hands. Leap Motion now focus on bringing this motion sensing technology closer to the real world. Leap Motion Development Essentials explains the concepts and practical applications of gesture input for developers who want to take full advantage of Leap Motion technology. This guide explores the capabilities available to developers and gives you a clear overview of topics related to gesture input along with usable code samples. Leap Motion Development Essentials shows you everything you need to know about the Leap Motion SDK, from creating a working program with gesture input to more sophisticated applications covering a range of relevant topics. Sample code is provided and explained along with details of the most important and central API concepts. This book teaches you the essential information you need to design a gesture-enabled interface for your application, from specific gesture detection to best practices for this new input. You will be given guidance on practical considerations along with copious runnable demonstrations of API usage which are explained in step-by-step, reusable recipes.
Table of Contents (12 chapters)

Computer input


Computers are marvelous. They can do incredibly boring, repetitive tasks such as arithmetic and transfers of data at unbelievable speeds and they can automate all sorts of useful tasks. None of this does any good to anyone, though, without some sort of input and output system, in a way that a car with no doors or a toaster with no bread slots would be useless in the extreme.

The ways in which humans can interact with modern electrical computers have evolved considerably, from the days of mechanical typewriter-based outputs and punch cards to more modern keyboards, mice, and multi-touch input systems with graphical interfaces. With the Leap Motion, we can add a new dimension of input, both literally and figuratively, but we need to decide how to let users issue commands via hand motions and how to have our software translate the gestures into useful input and respond accordingly.

This task is somewhat complicated with a lack of a shared understanding or vocabulary among end-users...