Leap Motion To Drive Digital End-caps In Best Buys

January 16, 2013 by Dave Haynes

Tech Crunch is reporting that those little Leap Motion gesture controllers – which drives finger-level gesture controls to screens – will be sold exclusively (at first)  in U.S. Best Buys and marketed using digital end-caps in the stores.

The $70 controllers will be available for pre-order starting next month from Best Buy online and in-store in the U.S. No word on Canada or in other global markets, but the Best Buy deal is a launch thing and eventually other retailers will also have it.

Reports Tech Crunch:

I spoke with Leap Motion President and COO Andy Miller about the arrangement, and asked him why Best Buy represented a good fit for the hardware startup. Miller said that Best Buy had been very excited at the prospect of selling Leap’s controller, which can track a computer user’s movements with a high degree of accuracy and no lag time.

“They had been following our progress, and they invited us up to Minneapolis and they got their hands on the Leap Motion, and they decided that this was for them,” he said. “They’re a pretty forward-thinking company and we love the way they can tell the story. It’s really about partnering with someone who has the training to show off to potential customers what we can do.”

Miller added that for Best Buy, the value is in helping the company to show its consumers that it is still on the cutting edge, and capable of bringing them the latest in consumer interaction design. Leap Motion will be working with Best Buy to craft in-store end cap displays, which will feature the controller and games and apps selected by both the retailer and the hardware maker specifically to show off the device’s capabilities. The fact that this deal makes for a great software showcase was also at the forefront of Leap’s decision-making in going with Best Buy as a launch partner.

You will also be able to order the gadget off of Leap’s website. Shipping is supposed to start this quarter.

The big gesture stuff I have seen using Kinect mostly makes me shrug and wonder how much potential is actually there for public and retail interactive screen projects. But the Leap is meant for close-in work, and from what I have seen, is both accurate and intuitive. In the middle of a big flu outbreak, as we are right now, being able to interact with a screen and get what’s needed, without actually touching it, has a real attraction.

Using a touchscreen with your elbows has its limitations.