So, despite having spend some time surfing the web, mostly right after the device was announced, I still don't know how the Leap Motion works. I realize, that this is proprietary technology so it might be simply unknown. Still, from a magazine like TR I would expect to hear at least an educated guesses.<p>They link to a different article [1] which apparently got a demo from one of the founders. They claim, that <i>the Leap uses VGA camera sensors</i> but then they talk about a <i>force field</i> - whatever that is supposed to mean in this context.
<i>[...] Leap's device tracks all movement inside its force field [...]</i><p>Earlier, I heard some crude speculations about electro magnetic sensing and a mathematical breakthrough, that lead to the foundation of the company. But I have no idea what to think of them. A quick search on google scholar about the the two founders didn't reveal anything so far, either.<p>There is a Quora thread [2] on the topic, where someone, without any further comment linked to a 2012 Microsoft Research paper [3] with the title <i>SoundWave: Using the Doppler Effect to Sense Gestures</i>.<p>My assumption would have been, that they do indeed use optical cameras only. By using a bunch of them, combined with different angles and positions as well as a very limited workspace, they are able to increase the accuracy when compared to the Kinect. Do we have any hint on whether or not they project an infrared grid like the Kinect does?<p>[1] <a href="http://www.theverge.com/2012/6/26/3118592/leap-motion-gesture-controls" rel="nofollow">http://www.theverge.com/2012/6/26/3118592/leap-motion-gestur...</a>
[2] <a href="http://www.quora.com/Leap-Motion/Does-the-Leap-product-work-as-advertised" rel="nofollow">http://www.quora.com/Leap-Motion/Does-the-Leap-product-work-...</a>
[3] <a href="http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/redmond/groups/cue/publications/guptasoundwavechi2012.pdf" rel="nofollow">http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/redmond/groups/cue/pu...</a>