You Can Now Control Your Gadgets With Hand Gestures

Guys: we've just taken another step into our Jetsons-esque future. Or, rather, we've waved it in.

This brand-new "motion device," Leap Motion, rids you of the need for all those pesky keyboard, typepads, and mouses — because now, you can control your computer by just waving your hands in the air.

Let's say, for example, you want to play with Google Earth.

Instead of dragging your cursor to the edge of the globe and swiveling it round, you can reach out, grab the meta-Earth, and turn it round in the palm of your hand. (Bonus: now you know how Google feels.)

Here's how it works: you place the sensor between your keyboard and screen, and the device will recognize your hands. The company claims (slightly creepily) that it'll know exactly where each of your fingers are, to the hundredth of the millimeter.

Wanna play Temple Run with your hands? (Temple Crawl?) Go. Write with a single finger? Be our guest. Play Pac-Man the way it was intended? Right this way. Reach into Skype and grab your friend's face? Well... maybe. You're welcome to try, anyway.

The software is, at present, riddled with technological difficulties: it's "inconsistent and frustrating," according to the New York Times. But as with all first-round technology, the fact that it now exists is the main thing. Because after this, better versions will come. And better. And better.

And then the iShake and GMotion will get on the scene, and the NSA will get involved, and... well, anyway, we'll stop there.

For your own slice of the future, you can visit Leap Motion's website here. Prices start at $80, and the company starts shipping today.