Inspiration
We wanted to create something new, exciting and futuristic. Something thats really cool but also has a lot of practical uses, and this interface was it. First of all, it's really cool being able to control your entire computer simply by waving your hands in the air. And second, it could make for a great assistive technology for people with disabilities who can't use a traditional computer inputs.
What it does
Use your hands in the air to control your computer! Wave your hand in front of the screen, above the leap-motion, and this simulates a mouse cursor; you can move the mouse by waving your hands around! If you want to click or scroll, there are various finger gestures that you can do, such as pinching your thumb to your index finger in order to click, or pinching your thumb to your middle finger to scroll down. Its just a really cool way to control your computer!
How we built it
The finished project uses the Java Programing Language, along with a LeapMotion and the LeapMotion SDK. The LeapMotion tracks the movement of your hands, and the Java code gets the data from the LeapMotion and uses it in order to simulate a mouse cursor. We use an arduino with various sensors in order to simulate various actions when certain finger gestures are made.
Challenges we ran into
Learning the LeapMotion SDK was hard, but worth it after we got cursor movement! We also ran into trouble with our original Arduino and Sensors. The arduino that we originally had wasn't capable of sending mouse movements to the computer, and we spent many hours trying to figure out a way to work around this. We also tried many different sensors for our controls, such as accelerometers, touch sensors, and light sensors. This was also a hardware hack filled with hours of soldering!
Accomplishments that we're proud of
Finishing and having a nice working product!!! It may not be the prettiest but it is extremely cool and actually works. Watch the video demo, it's amazing. After hours and hours of struggling, we were able to solve most of the problems we came across and got the product to work.
What we learned
We learned a lot about the LeapMotion, it's a really cool piece of tech and fun to develop for! We also got to learn a lot about hardware, as that was a major part of our project. It was really satisfying getting everything to work together.
What's next for Mind Cntrl
We are hoping to integrate a bluetooth module to the arduino so that it doesn't have to be connected to the computer!, and want to come up with more useful gestures for the interface. We also hope to design a better looking product, as a glove with a bunch of wires sticking out isn't the most appealing (:
Check out the video demo!!!
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