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  • This motion controlled dog wants to be the Candy Crush of physical therapy

    by 
    Sean Buckley
    Sean Buckley
    05.17.2014

    Physical therapy isn't fun. It's a physical and emotional challenge that often consists of dull, repetitive tasks. It's boring, and offers patients almost no short-term rewards for their very real efforts -- but maybe it doesn't have to be that way. A new software platform called Visual Touch Therapy is trying to make physical rehabilitation fun, gamifying repetitive exercises by marrying a Leap Motion controller, a PC and a simple meme-inspired video game. The game itself is fairly simple: players perform simple motions over the Leap controller that cause a dog character to run (or fly a jetpack) across the screen, and their performance and improvement can be tracked, quantified and even sent to their physical therapist for review.

  • Disarm a bomb with your hand, a robot arm and Leap-motion controller

    by 
    Sean Buckley
    Sean Buckley
    05.17.2014

    Neutralizing explosives, it turns out, is a delicate and complicated procedure -- but a company called Mirror Training hopes to make it simpler. "Our company has built an interface that literally uses your own hand and arm to move a robotic arm," announced CEO Liz Alessi. "I like to call it 'wear your robot.'" The interface uses a Leap Motion controller to detect an arm and hand movements, allowing a bomb squad robot to directly mirror its operator's actions. In tests, Alessi says, it has allowed operators to disarm mock-bombs twice as fast as traditional control methods.