LEAP Motion Controller 2014-35

This hands free controller is thought by many of us to be the answer to how to deal with hand movement while wearing a HMD (like an Oculus Rift). Jo Yardley has an article on the progress LEAP Motion is making with their VR effort. See: Leap motion announces VR related progress. She includes a video LEAP made (1:30 min) and a link to the source article at LEAP Motion’s site.

Oculus Rift - Image by: Franklin Heijnen - Flickr

Oculus Rift – Image by: Franklin Heijnen – Flickr

Like many LEAP Motion controller owners, Jo does not use the controller often. Mine mostly sits in the box too. You can find LEAP controllers on eBay cheap. I am hoping that changes when the Oculus or another HMD unit go retail.  Continue reading

LEAP Motion 2014-22

The LEAP Motion people have an article up (Drax links to it also in episode 21) about recent changes in their technology. They are striving to make a natural user interface for the computer. With VR becoming a reality many think we need a new user interface that allows us to use the computer in the same way we manipulate real world things.

LEAP Motion Controller - Image by: Ken Hawkins - Flickr

LEAP Motion Controller – Image by: Ken Hawkins – Flickr

The LEAP controller I purchased some months ago is not the answer. It can detect hand motion. But, to control a game we used gestures. Trying to remember that gesture ‘A’ (may be pointing two fingers right) means turn right and gesture ‘B’ (may be moving both hands up and down) means jump is not much of an improvement. We are just changing what we manipulate to tell the computer something.

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My Second Life LEAP Motion Experiment

LEAP Motion Controller is the mouse free controller for your computer. I figured this would be a good device for use with the Oculus Rift. I went on eBay and picked up a near new one for US$50. I tried it out with the default apps and some free games.

It does not come with any app or adaption for Second Life™. One needs a free or retail app to adapt LEAP to SL. Drax made a video showing his experience with LEAP and Second Life.

The app Drax is suing is Game Wave (US$4). I tried some free apps. I didn’t find anything that would work well. So, I tried the app he is using in the video.

It has a good introductory manual, a tutorial if you will. The best I have seen explaining hand gestures for the LEAP. Continue reading

The Next Ten in Second Life

Some bloggers have become frustrated with Second Life™. I hear them talking out the frustration by writing about how bad SL is, how dumb the Lab is, how SL is dying, it is all over… yadda, yadda, yaddda… Then there are the bloggers that write as if they know what the Lab should do. Of course none of those writers are making US$45+ million per year. So, lets take a look at some possibilities.

Another look at Concurrency - 2012

Another look at Concurrency – 2012

Hamlet has written several articles, I take as mostly objective, about what is wrong and right with SL. So, lets start with those.

Many feel SL is losing users, land, and popularity. I tend to agree with that thinking about losing users. But, that is sort of like saying a 600 mph (965 kph) car has been nerfed to death when it only runs 500 mph. It is still way faster than most people’s car.

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