Mugato: That looks like more effort, not less.

I need one that does all of that with vague facial expressions.

They can have my mouse when they pry it from my cold dead hand.

Right. Now lets see someone hold their arm in midair and waving their fingers for longer than fifteen minutes, then ask them which they prefer.

Imagine a flash drive-sized, X-Box Kinect-like device that allows you to simply move your hands and fingers around to control your computer?

You mean, like, a mouse?

Rincewind53: So, after my initial post where I didn't watch the video involved, I went ahead and fired it up. And was immediately amused to see a blatant example of faked footage; from 0:38 to 0:43 the "hand" plays Half-Life 2: Lost Coast. And while the hand is just pointing and "pulling the trigger", the motions on the screen involve both walking forward and changing guns, both of which involve different keystrokes and would presumably require a keyboard off-screen. I know tech demos like this frequently play fast and loose with simulated footage, but that's just laughable.

And yeah, this. Ridiculous. The implications are even worse than the obvious fact that we can't play our favorite games with this technology. The real implication one can take from the video is that NOBODY, even THE VERY PEOPLE THAT ARE TRYING TO PITCH THE TECHNOLOGY, CAN TELL/SHOW US WHAT IT'S SUPPOSED TO ACCOMPLISH! They've derived a way for computers to optically track a human hand in a way that is far, far less accurate than my Steelseries mouse which has 11 buttons/wheels/functions and is accurate to a ridiculously high DPI, and is controlled in such a way that none of my fingers ever have to move more than a quarter of an inch at a time. To move my mouse cursor from one side of my screen to the other means moving my mouse about two inches across my mousepad. The only way I can see improving on the mouse is by adding a SECOND mouse, to be controlled by the off-hand, on the other side of the keyboard.

So the makers of the video cobbled together a cute piece of fiction that shows a human hand making tiny gestures that somehow control a a first-person shooter, which involves turning, strafing, reloading, changing weapons, opening doors/'using' items, etc. Anyone who actually plays these games realizes that these actions require about a dozen keys on a keyboard in addition to most functions on a typical mouse (I use the scroll wheel to cycle through weapons, dunno about you). And that these functions don't need improvement - the typical KB/mouse combo, once configured, requires very little movement of the hands in order to employ their use. And yet, somehow, a floating hand making gestures is somehow supposed to replace all these functions. Riiiight.

No thank you.

Doesn't ship until December? It's May. This thing is bull.

This is why I love Fark. I read an article like this and think 'god help us if people are really stupid enough to believe that a device like that will replace keyboards'. And then I come to the comments here and see that at least all you guys recognise the fallacy of this device.

Maybe, just maybe I could see something like this being useful as a partner to a mouse. Only because sometimes I sit here on the computer doing stuff like internet browsing or other tasks that don't always require a whole lot of mouse clicks. And in that instance I'd kinda like to be able to just gesture to what I want instead of using the mouse. Might possibly help combat wrist strain. But I still agree that for any intensive tasks this would be no better than a mouse so I'd definitely want to have one there to take over with.

Well, at least we've found a way around the whole "size of our fingers" limitation. Combine a more advanced version of this with a wearable computer and a HUD you might have something.

Device hasn't actually been seen outside of press releases.

Mike_LowELL: The sound of one hand clapping: Maybe, just maybe I could see something like this being useful as a partner to a mouse. Only because sometimes I sit here on the computer doing stuff like internet browsing or other tasks that don't always require a whole lot of mouse clicks. And in that instance I'd kinda like to be able to just gesture to what I want instead of using the mouse. Might possibly help combat wrist strain. But I still agree that for any intensive tasks this would be no better than a mouse so I'd definitely want to have one there to take over with.

It's real simple: All these idiots who keep touting motion controls as the future of input fail to realize that the value of the mouse (or the game controller) is that it allows people to maintain proper tactile feedback on input with greater than a one-to-one ratio. Motion controls do not, which is why every single "good" video game with motion controls (and I use "good" loosely) mimics something that you can do with your body movement in real life. See: Shoot a gun, play rudimentary versions of a sport, etc. That ratio allows you to maintain a sense of control while allowing for a greater rate of efficiency (less exertion for more movement). Using your entire body to do what can be done by moving your mouse one inch to the left or right is stupid. Every time one of these new input schemes comes out, it should be subjected to the StarCraft test. If it can be used to play StarCraft competently, then it's good. If not, it sucks. And no, you're not allowed to pick Protoss during the demonstration, because Colossi are cheating.

You are correct.

I can think of one really cool, feasible improvement to current inputs - eye-tracking. Instead of moving the mouse and then clicking on stuff, you just LOOK at a link, and then click on it (with the mouse). The cameras track your eyes and intelligently determine what part of the screen you're looking at. This could greatly increase reaction times in gaming, and increase general productivity. On the downside, porn sites would take total advantage of this and make sure that you accidentally click on banner ads that suddenly appear and cause you to involuntarily glance at them just as you're clicking. Therefore, I take the entire previous paragraph back. I'd rather just stick with a keyboard and mouse for the rest of my life, I guess.

Mike_LowELL: Has input latency, will get you into Platinum League at-best on StarCraft II, not interested.

That reminds me, where the fark is Heart of the Swarm? It's not like they have to build a new game from the ground up, the grunt work is already done.

Oh boy, more Angry Birds and Fruit Ninja! Can I really play the same glorified Newgrounds rejects with this thing!?

Yeah, agreeing with what everyone else here is saying. There's a difference between where your finger is pointing and what you are looking at that you want your finger to point at. In your mind's eye, you may think you are pointing at what you're looking at but really you're just pointing in its general direction, and it may be widely off-target. Now, with this, one may be able to get pretty good at getting coordinated with it, like how it takes some time to get used to a Wiimote, but for the most part, for this to really work well, your fingers will have to be really close to the screen, and you might as well get a goddamn touchscreen since, at that distance, there's really no difference. And besides, it still won't be as precise and stable as a mouse, and using a mouse or, to a lesser extant, a touchscreen, is far less stressful on the joints than floating your hands above the computer

Really, there won't be a good replacement for tactile input until we can direct computers with our minds, which is still a good decade or two away from being seriously viable.

Pffft, I'm waiting for something like this ^ (the first part, not the last)

Step 1 : Cut a hole in the desk where your mouse is
Step 2 : Mount the device under the desk in said location
Step 3 : Penis

/Could be useful for animation, stylus tasks
//Conductor Hero!!!

You'd have to pry my Model M from my well-toned thanks to the buckling spring mechanism fingers.

Thing gave me flashbacks to the fricken power glove. Not a step in the right direction.

Neondistraction: Mike_LowELL: Has input latency, will get you into Platinum League at-best on StarCraft II, not interested.

That reminds me, where the fark is Heart of the Swarm? It's not like they have to build a new game from the ground up, the grunt work is already done.

Well first we have to wait for them to milk the people who bought diablo 3, so I'm thinking at the very least 3 years.

Doctor Jan Itor: Step 1 : Cut a hole in the desk where your mouse is
Step 2 : Mount the device under the desk in said location
Step 3 : Penis

/Could be useful for animation, stylus tasks
//Conductor Hero!!!

LOL
You owe me one new LeapMotion doohickey thing

Just bought a new mouse yesterday, so I'm getting a kick...

$68.99 + S&H

Meh. More of a toy than a tool.

This is going to play hell when someone is moving their right (or left) hand up and down in a rapid motion while on YouJizz.

Seeing as how Kinect is still so wonky in anything but the most basic games, I think I'll pass on motion capture for a while.

Old enough to know better: Right. Now lets see someone hold their arm in midair and waving their fingers for longer than fifteen minutes, then ask them which they prefer.

What's that?
http://animalmakers.com/Catalog/images/suits_primates_5755-01.jpg

Rincewind53: Except for people who have, you know, jobs that require typing things. Or lots of repeated, very precise clicking. Or basically every function that the keyboard and mouse are better at.

In its defense, it seems from the video that it's supposed to be a replacement for the touch-screen, not the keyboard/mouse. Basically every application being demonstrated was a touch-screen app (fruit ninja, tablet browser, etc).

I could see paying the price of a video game for one of those if I had any interest in tablet-style PCs, seems superior to smearing my lunch all over my electronics when I want to tell Youtube to start the video.

Jim_Callahan: Rincewind53: Except for people who have, you know, jobs that require typing things. Or lots of repeated, very precise clicking. Or basically every function that the keyboard and mouse are better at.

In its defense, it seems from the video that it's supposed to be a replacement for the touch-screen, not the keyboard/mouse. Basically every application being demonstrated was a touch-screen app (fruit ninja, tablet browser, etc).

I could see paying the price of a video game for one of those if I had any interest in tablet-style PCs, seems superior to smearing my lunch all over my electronics when I want to tell Youtube to start the video.

In part it would seem so. However, the main flaw of that theory is that currently most touch-screen devices are no stationary. Most people don't put their phone or ipad down on a table when they need to check their email.

A seven-month pre-order for a 'limited' supply, pre-dodging questions in the not-so-FAQ, as below...
Who are your partners? Our partners include many of the world's largest companies. In the consumer electronics space for example, we expect to integrate our technology into tablets, smart phones, laptops and game systems.
OK, I can understand dodging that somewhat, in order to keep speculation to a minimum.

How about Linux? Linux support is on the agenda.
SHENANIGANS.

Ask: In part it would seem so. However, the main flaw of that theory is that currently most touch-screen devices are no stationary. Most people don't put their phone or ipad down on a table when they need to check their email.

Depends what you're doing. People that do art using a touch screen (generally with a stylus, note the stylus emulation in the video) typically use a larger screen and put it down somewhere. When I'm using the browser on my phone I even typically anchor the hand holding it on some sort of surface and then operate it using the other hand.

I mean, yeah, you're right in that it's probably not much of an improvement for mobile devices, but remember that companies like MS have been trying to get stationary touch-screens off the ground since like the mid 1990s, so there's apparently some kind of potential market there. Things like the old touchscreen table might actually take off if they were in the 3 or 400$ price range instead of like 6k$.

sorry, 3D modeling and CAD/CAM users want a keyboard and a mouse..there is no getting around it. this might be useful as a 3D mouse instead of a 3Dconnexion device, but as for selection and stuff, mouse and keyboard.