Have you ever watched a movie and marveled as a character searches through a screen using only their hands in the air to quickly sort through massive amounts of data and information instantly? Well marvel no more. Entrepreneurs David Holz and Michael Buckwald are leading the charge into the future with their start-up Leap Motion.
In 2008 David Holz was a student at UNC Chapel Hill, working towards a Ph.D. in mathematics. However, as he worked through the arduous work he would need to complete his program he became entirely fed up with the bulkiness and restrictiveness of a keyboard and mouse. By the time he had joined forces with friend Michael Buckwald he had a prototype that would eliminate wires and tactile devices forever. But there was a problem: although accurate and useful, the device was still the size of a keyboard. But investor Bill Warner was impressed and helped them get their product down to an $80 dollar device the size of a USB.
Leap Motion is not without its flaws. You still want a keyboard. Most of all people do miss the ability to know that they have grabbed and item or distinctly clicked something. But the accuracy and compactness of the device – already in Best Buys across the nation – is making headlines and money. Investors have poured in over $45 million to Holz and Buckwald in an effort to make Leap Motion the new normal. Leap Motion as a whole has over 80 employees. With almost no advertising the company received over $10 million in pre-sales before the launch of Leap Motion in July. Soon enough we will all be perusing our computers with a simple twitch of our finger.
What an incredible product! I looked up their website, and it looks like something straight out of the movies. Yet another example of experimenting with your ideas.
It’s crazy to think that technology has progressed to the point where this is possible! I love it how these guys were able to turn something as simple as an inconvenience to their computing into such an innovative and futuristic product. I suppose what was once simply a funky idea is sci-fi movies has finally moved into the adjacent possible- much like those wireless communicators and sliding doors on star-trek which they once thought were just crazy ideas!
I had no idea that this was even possible. Its really a great idea and it really seems like in today’s society, the compactness of a device is important as space is an issue. Although most people don’t have it now, in the future this seems like a device that could become widespread.
I would have really liked to see more about the product itself, what is it exactly? How did they get it smaller? It seems to be a really interesting product, and obviously successful since they didn’t need much marketing to get such a large profit margin, but I would have really liked to see more detailed description of the product itself.
I’ve heard a lot about this product and it is a really cool one. With how easy it would be to use and the convenience of it I think it’s great how successful it can be. The entrepreneurs that came up with this idea were thinking well when They came up with this.