Leap Motion Tuesday announced a partnership with Hewlett-Packard to bring the startup's motion-control technology to HP devices.
While the announcement didn't say what kinds of devices would be have Leap's technology built-in, it's a fair guess that it would include Windows 8 PCs. Any machine with the Leap controller embedded will also include Airspace, Leap Motion's app store, pre-loaded.
"This announcement has been a year in the making," Andy Miller, Leap president and COO, told Mashable. "We spent a lot of time with these folks. They were really pro-active, and they thought the technology had a lot of promise early on when it was just the founders and few others. They've been working with us and testing."
Before products with built-in Leap tech arrive, HP will sell bundles, where a standalone Leap controller is sold along with a PC. Leap announced a deal to bundle its controller with another partner, Asus, earlier this year, but the partnership with HP is the company's first that involves building the tech into another manufacturer's products.
It's unknown what kind of premium embedded Leap technology will add a premium to HP products, but Miller did say it would add an "insubstantial" amount of weight to any product.
The Leap motion-control sensor, which connects to any PC via USB, will go on sale May 13 for $79.99. That device is currently up for pre-order.
Leap claims its motion controller, which can precisely track the movement of 10 fingers, is 200 times as sensitive as other motion-control systems such as Microsoft Kinect. Leap sees its technology as part of a larger trend: the evolution of device user interfaces, incluing the emergence of eye tracking and thought control as viable technologies.
"In my mind, this ushers in the new era of touchless computing," Miller says. "Hopefully we'll look back on this as the creation of a new space."
Are you excited that HP PCs will soon have Leap's tech built in? Let us know in the comments.