Leap Motion laid off 10 percent of employees, including high-ranking executives in its sales and marketing wing. The company, however, has retained the product, design and engineering teams and is also planning to hire more employees for these teams.
Earlier with the pre-order interests for the motion controller, Leap Motion escalated the workforce to its peak. But the disappointing reviews of the product led to the company’s failure in achieving the very first estimate of annual sales.
Michael Buckwald, CEO and co-founder of Leap Motion, said in an interview with TechCrunch that the company had formulated a business plan that assures success over the next decade, instead of the first production run.
“In order for David [Holz, Leap Motion co-founder] and I to feel financially responsible, we were forced to make a difficult decision and cut about 10 percent of the team from the marketing and support side,” Buckwald said.
“So that we could continue to hire for engineering and product roles as we roll out our version 2 software and as we think about moving into new spaces and new form factors outside of the PC.”
Buckwald explained “In terms of how we see the technology, it’s always been about a five- or ten-year path to executing on that vision, and the peripheral as it exists now and the v. 1 software is an amazing device for many things, but it’s also the very, very, very first step in that direction.”
According to the report, Leap Motion has expected up to 5 million units in holiday sales, but ended up in sales of close to 500,000 units. Buckwald also noted that the company is still happy with this figure from a revenue perspective and claimed it to be providing “plenty of options” that leads to successful growth of the company.
Leap Motion hardware integration
I think the Leap Motion should continue trying to integrate their devices into more OEMs. The HP Envy 17 notebook has the Leap Motion sensor built in. Similarly, 4 eye tracking companies are also trying to negotiate for hardware integration right now. An external eye tracker device can cost $99, but if manufacturers of smartphone, tablet, notebook, and laptop modify the existing built-in camera in these devices, and add an upgraded sensor, it’s supposed to only add $5 to the manufacturing cost.
I don’t know what the cost of hardware integration for the Leap Motion was, but if it’s anything like eye-tracking integration, you might as well take it if it’s going to be that cheap.
Leap Motion as the main input
I think one of the problems with extended use as the main input would be getting some Gorilla arm syndrome:
> “failure to understand the ergonomics of vertically mounted touchscreens for prolonged use. By this proposition the human arm held in an unsupported horizontal position rapidly becomes fatigued and painful”.
It’s not as bad as a touch UI in a desktop environment, where you actually have to reach out, and touch the screen, but it could still be a problem.
Leap Motion + eye tracking
Assuming a Leap Motion and eye tracker sensor were already built in, I wonder if both of them could make a good combination. I would use my eyes to first highlight the interface element, and then I would train the Leap Motion to recognize me lightly tapping a specific area of my desk to execute a “click-where-I’m-looking”.
I’ve also seen other gesture devices like the Myo armband, Fin (thumb ring), and Ring (a ring), and I’m not sure how many gestures I could remember.
If the eye tracker is the mouse, then you only need a few gestures for “click-where-I’m-looking”, “double click-where-I’m-looking”, “begin drag-at-where-I’m-looking”, etc..
Example: zooming-in on a map
I like the Leap Motion for zooming. One way of zooming in map software is to reach for your mouse, move the cursor to the spot that you want to zoom, and then continuously move the scroll wheel. Another way would be to just look at your target (eye tracker), and then do a quick air pinch-zoom gesture with the Leap.
(Of course, you can still use the keyboard and mouse. You’re just adding two more inputs, gaze and gestures, to your arsenal).