Leap Motion looks promising

[MACADEMIC]

I wrote 'And this is just the beginning.'

 

Playing around with it a bit more, I might as well just say: 'And this is as far as it'll ever get'.

 

Leap's own visualisation app shows that leap is doing a very poor job at tracking fingers except when spread out wide. A full hand is okay, some waving, tilting as well, some finger up/down movement, yes. But I meanwhile don't see this device working well enough to give us the natural hand movements you'd use in a real cockpit. This doesn't mean it won't work all right with GameWave, I hope it will. But not quite as well as I hoped. Seems like the underlying technology (infrared sensors) won't allow it.

 

Well, as someone else said on another forum...the bleeding edge is - well, the bleeding edge.

 

Will keep reporting how it's going when GameWave is out.

 

MAC

Edited August 1, 2013 by MACADEMIC

[Bushmanni]

Do you think it would work as a useful 3d pointing device for operating switches and buttons in 3d cockpit? Could you swipe a switch up or down to move it in respective direction or "push" a button with your finger with good accuracy? Can it detect a pinch gesture and rotation of your hand to operate turn knobs? Can it track your both hands in front of and at sides of your body in large enough space where the virtual cockpit would be? I don't think we need all kinds of fancy finger gestures for this to be usable but the stuff I'm asking about is something you would need for DCS.

[MACADEMIC]

Well at the moment I'm waiting for GameWave (see video above) to be released. What it will do is emulate what you're doing with your mouse and/or keyboard in the cockpit at the moment, but it will be limited to the set of gestures that come with the Leap. Judging from the video, accuracy will be good enough. Spacing I don't know, remains to be seen, but with Track IR shouldn't be a problem I think.

 

Pinching, grabbing, moving, rotating handles etc. are not possible at the moment. So I think Leap is a step in the right direction, but doesn't go far enough yet.

 

Will keep reporting.

 

MAC

[DayGlow]

Do you think it would work as a useful 3d pointing device for operating switches and buttons in 3d cockpit? Could you swipe a switch up or down to move it in respective direction or "push" a button with your finger with good accuracy? Can it detect a pinch gesture and rotation of your hand to operate turn knobs? Can it track your both hands in front of and at sides of your body in large enough space where the virtual cockpit would be? I don't think we need all kinds of fancy finger gestures for this to be usable but the stuff I'm asking about is something you would need for DCS.

 

All these things ate possible looking at the visualization software, but a DCS app would have to be created by someone. This type of control isn't possible with the current apps. The hardware has the abilities, but someone would have create specific software or ED create a native plugin like TrackIR.

[MACADEMIC]

Leap in DCS, first trials

 

So guys, GameWave is out and available on the Leap Airspace store for $3.99. Good news first, I managed to emulate a mouse to control desktop applications, managing all with one hand doing gestures. So, moving left, right, up down; left click, right click, scroll up, scroll down; and cursor pause for repositioning. Took a little practice and fiddling with the settings but got there, mouse control was quite stable.

 

So before I went to try this in DCS, went to browse some websites and play some online chess. All this worked all right and it was interesting controlling the desktop with my right hand. A bit strenuous over time and not nearly as easy and precise as a mouse. But interesting, okay.

 

With DCS, my first attempt was very laggy, the mouse was a few seconds behind my movements! However luckily this turned out to be a one off affair, and after reboot speeds were not noticably behind mouse speeds. I managed to start the engine on the Mustang with left and right hands (both identical control settings) going through the cockpit, using no mouse for controlling any knobs or switches. This was very interesting, but quite hard to keep the cursor exactly where you want it to be while forming new gestures with the same hand for left click. Basically, instead of using my hands what god made them for, I used them as if they were sticks, in a robotic way, trying to keep steady while doing the gestures. It felt an awkward combination of great to use your hands to get something done yet completely unnatural.

 

Leap is definitely not there yet to provide a fluent and more immersive tool for flight sims, and frankly I have doubts in its present iteration it could ever be. Beyond experimenting with it and keeping up to date, I can't see myself using this much in flight sims or otherwise. But, it gave me a good idea how fantastic it would be to reach and grab those handles and knobs with natural movements in a virtual environment, one day. To this day, I look forward!

 

MAC

[Tone71]

Thanks for the review, very informative. Shame it didn't work out, I very much liked the idea of it.

[jay43]

So guys, GameWave is out and available on the Leap Airspace store for $3.99. Good news first, I managed to emulate a mouse to control desktop applications, managing all with one hand doing gestures. So, moving left, right, up down; left click, right click, scroll up, scroll down; and cursor pause for repositioning. Took a little practice and fiddling with the settings but got there, mouse control was quite stable.

 

So before I went to try this in DCS, went to browse some websites and play some online chess. All this worked all right and it was interesting controlling the desktop with my right hand. A bit strenuous over time and not nearly as easy and precise as a mouse. But interesting, okay.

 

With DCS, my first attempt was very laggy, the mouse was a few seconds behind my movements! However luckily this turned out to be a one off affair, and after reboot speeds were not noticably behind mouse speeds. I managed to start the engine on the Mustang with left and right hands (both identical control settings) going through the cockpit, using no mouse for controlling any knobs or switches. This was very interesting, but quite hard to keep the cursor exactly where you want it to be while forming new gestures with the same hand for left click. Basically, instead of using my hands what god made them for, I used them as if they were sticks, in a robotic way, trying to keep steady while doing the gestures. It felt an awkward combination of great to use your hands to get something done yet completely unnatural.

 

Leap is definitely not there yet to provide a fluent and more immersive tool for flight sims, and frankly I have doubts in its present iteration it could ever be. Beyond experimenting with it and keeping up to date, I can't see myself using this much in flight sims or otherwise. But, it gave me a good idea how fantastic it would be to reach and grab those handles and knobs with natural movements in a virtual environment, one day. To this day, I look forward!

 

MAC

 

 

Nice Mac I might get that and give it a try.

The one thing I find irritating about the Leap is its lack of ability to filter out background lighting unlike the Trackir camera it has sliders to adjust to filter out some lighting conditions but the Leap has no adjustment for that which makes it a bit lame really and poorly thought out because it has to sit on the desk which means it picks up overhead light sources switch those of and now it picks up the source from my screens.

All I all it has potential but is lacking a bit in its claims and ability's which may improve over time.

[Dhorse]

Leap Motion Orion? :)

 

Hi everyone, and developers foremost :)

 

I just bought a Leap Motion: Orion yesterday on the Leap Motion SALE! :) Jippiiiii!:lol: :pilotfly:

Any news regarding the Leap Motion related to DCS and/ or any thoughts about implementing this into the DCS beautiful World? I sincerely hope so! ;)

 

Only thing I´ve found on the internet is a very short video on Youtube with the Old Leap Motion from last year, October 2015. Not a word from the DCS team? :cry:

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[Kirin]

It's great to see that we are at the bleeding edge of technology here. I am very optimistic about Leap - well I have to be. When the VR bomb drops in April there won't be another route to go. Poking blindly for your mouse when in VR just won't cut it. So I would be content with the most basic 'hand control'. Stiff sticks to point at switches has to suffice at the moment.

 

It would be great to hear what ED is working on atm - what their vision of controling the virtual cockpit is.

 

I remember the days when TrackIR was still a tool for disabled users to control the mouse - look how far we come!

 

 

Kirin out