LeapWalking

Is it possible to map the walking of fingers to the movement of a game character? LeapWalking describes a gesture-based interaction technique for controlling the movement of a virtual character. A LeapMotion tracks the user’s hand and maps the index and the middle finger to the movement of the in-game character. We wanted to find out if the gestures can be mapped properly and if this interaction technique feels natural and intuitive to the user. To test our approach, we developed a simple 3D jump-n-run game, where the character, depending on the hand posture, runs, jumps, ducks or moves left or right to avoid obstacles. We found that the gestures are valid, but the hand position is tiring after a few minutes.