Tag Archives: Review

LEAP Motion – my final comments

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I am one of those early adopters who was very excited about the LEAP Motion technology and the potential. I started playing with LEAP on August 14th 2013 and finally i returned the device today. LEAP Motion is a good device but probably not for me at this time.

Here are top 3 reasons for me to return the device.

1) Free Apps: There are 23 Apps on the LEAP App Store (called AirSpace) for both Windows and Mac. I would not use some of them and I don’t want to buy apps. I have spent $70+ for the device and I am not ready to pay for the Apps. My favorite game “Fruit Ninja” is $2.99 on Windows. Unfortunately, in the era of the iOS and Android Apps ecosystem, I never paid more than $.99 for an App. I enjoy most of the Apps for FREE. In that context, paying anything more than $.99 is a burden on me.

I believe LEAP (or partners) should have created more Apps before this launch. I like to explore but without lot of FREE Apps, my options are limited.

2 )New HCI Paradigm : Of course, LEAP is all about the new human computer interaction that potentially creates multiple opportunities. It took me a while to get used to the hand gestures and how i control the screen.

No wonder, Steve Jobs is the genius to understand the users as well as the business sense when he introduced the iPhone and iPad. The user interaction is pretty intuitive, starting from 2 year old kid to 90 year old grand ma. The usage of the finger to accomplish any task on iPhone/iPad is the trick. Everything just works.

With LEAP Motion, I was not able to get the same intuitiveness and it just feels odd. Also, i work mostly on the laptop and it becomes very cumbersome to keep Leap on your lap and do hand gestures. Perhaps this is designed for people using the desktops.

3) Usecases : After playing couple of FREE games, I did not know what ELSE to do. Can i control my whole Windows 7 experience? probably not. Unless, i launch the AirSpace to start the App, I cant not do anything. Perhaps, I may have tried to explore more if i had more Free apps????

So ???? : As a Computer Science engineer and a MBA, LEAP Motion is freaking cool technology and has some cool usecases. Usage of the cameras, infrared sensors to create the 3D space and manipulating the apps is great. But, I (as a user) was not too sure what i can do with this device.

I would definitely imagine there are lots of use cases in the 3D modeling space. Especially in the Construction Industry, this can be used to do the BIMs (building information models) and model them collaboratively. I can also imagine the use of LEAP Motion in Education/Schools/Medical Schools, for kids to touch and interact with the virtual body parts. In addition, they can build great FREE Apps for kids. My daughter would love to interact with the objects in the air and dress up Dora and all her favorite princesses.

I will definitely re-visit LEAP in couple of months and hopefully I can find some compelling usecases. But for now, it’s not for me!

Gesture Recognition Leap In Action Leap Motion App Gallery

LEAP Motion – Interesting HCI paradigm

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OK, finally i was able to play with my new Leap Motion . Pretty cool technology that detects your hand motion and transfer it to your computer screen.

Some notes on Day 1:
* Setup is freaking simple! Plug it in, install the Leap Motion and go!
* Leap Motion is small in size and fits on most desks
* This is a new way of interacting with the applications
* Current FREE Apps are *NOT* enough to explore.
* I would like to see more FREE Apps. I don’t want to buy Apps! No way!
* Hopefully I should be able to control the whole desktop (not just the Airspace App) with hands.

Am I excited now? Yes. Will I be excited the Day 10? Not sure yet.

Leap Motion and USB Connector Leap In Action Gesture Recognition Leap Packaging

Honeymoon with iPhone 4S is over!

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From iPhone 3GS it was a natural upgrade for me to 4S. I was so happy to be getting the 4S mainly because of the camera and #Siri. But not anymore.

  1. Battery drains too quick. I keep it charging the whole night and when i take it to office the next day morning, it lasts only till 3.00pm to 5.00pm. Yeah.. yeah.. i did remove the location based services and all.
  2. iOS 5 hangs frequently. Unfortunately this is the least I would expect from #Apple’s software.
  3. When you are on a call and then you open Camera, my phone almost always goes into “dead” mode. The only way it comes back is when all the batter is drained. Till that time I can not even force restart. None of the buttons work.
  4. At times I see funny scroll of numbers on the event notifications. I attached my company outlook to my 4S and during certain situations, the time on the event notification message just rolls randomly.
  5. I was very exited about Siri initially but not anymore. Especially, for my Indian-English accent, Siri is not the best voice recognition software that i would rely on. Instead, when i use my wife’s #Samsung #Galaxy S 2, I thought #GoogleVoice has a better capability than Siri.

May be i should have got the Samsung’s Galaxy S 2 ? I am still confused.

Google TV – Logitech Revue Review

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I am a huge believer that the way we consume the video is going to change. And its not far off. Google TV made a bold step to bring the online video content to the TV. The Google TV platform went into the Logitech Revue and Sony Internet TV. Below is a short review of the Revue that i have been using from past 3 months.

Google TV Logitech Revue Review – Part 1

Google TV Logitech Revue Review – Part 2

Avatar Movie : My take on it…

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I just watched the Avatar Movie this afternoon around 3.30pm show in Regal 3D-IMAX in Dublin/CA. Its almost 2 hours 40 min movie and well thought out hi-fi science fiction.

Nice aspects of Movie :

  • The graphics work is AWESOME! All the scenes in the movie looked very REAL.
  • I heard the complete Navi clan, especially Navi female (Neytiri) is completely computer generated. That is a complete brilliant work done by Technology/Graphics.
  • The Pandora’s hanging Mountains, Dragons, The Giant Tree, Mountain Banshee/Ikran, Rhinoceros like, Viperwolf, beautiful creatures in jungle are wonderful creatures that felt life like.

What could have been better :

  • The fight machines/Amplified Mobility Platform in the movie seems to be replica of Matrix Movie which we have seen in Xion.
  • The initial screen based computer and navigation seems to be borrowed from Minority Report/Matrix.
  • Some of the scenes like mountains and terrains are similar to Lord of The Rings/Harry Porter.
  • The “Unobtanium” metal –  the reason why humans are on Pandora does not seem to contain any importance. This is a little silly concept and did not gel well with the rest of screen play.
  • The first 30 minutes seems to be dragging and slow.

All in all, it is a disappointment for a James Cameron Movie. Perhaps the expectations are too high. What i saw was a combination of different movies and shortage of originality for the Avatar.

Viperwolf