Is this a leap into the future of editing?

Leap: Accurate gesture control

We're all pretty familiar with motion-sensing gizmos like the Microsoft Kinect, and that means that we also know about the limits of that technology. Remarkable though it is, it's not as accurate as some applications would need it to be for it to be genuinely useful

And some applications need a hundred times that accuracy. Imagine scrubbing audio, with single-sample precision. Imagine trimming video with total fine control, with just a wave of the hand.

At the risk of sounding like I'm writing the advertising copy for a new product that does just that, there really is a product that does just that.

LEAP controller

It's called the LEAP motion controller, and its developer claims that it is two hundred times more accurate than "anything else on the market".

And it's really tiny - about the size of a flash drive.

With its own CPU and an unspecified number of sensors, it can track individual finger movements to 100th of a millimetre, for sub-pixel accuracy.

Would you want to work this way?

LEAP is working closely with an army of developers to create applications that can use these capabilties. Which leaves us wondering: would you actually want to control your NLE by waving your hands in the air? Actually, such is the accuracy of this thing that we should probably put it another way:

We can control our fingers with incredible precision, in three dimensions. Would you like to be able to control your NLE with the same precision, with the added bonus of a third dimension (for simultaneous control over additional aspects of the edit?)

I'm pretty sure what the answer would be!

The LEAP motion controller is available for pre-order at $69.00 excluding shipping.