First there was air guitar, then the zipper scratch. But Leap Motion seem to have made air scratching a practical reality if this freshly squeezed clip of scratch legend DJ Qbert is to be believed.
[youtube id=”3b4w749Tud8″]
For those not aware, the Leap Motion controller is a 3D motion device, capable of capturing movements and translating them to screen commands. It’s incredibly clever, and watching the demo movie shows that it really is the next leap beyond multi-touch on a trackpad.
But quite what is going on in this clip is hard to work out. I’m sure the Leap Motion can make a good attempt at capturing the hand movement. But I’m unsure of how the fader clicks are handled. It looks like the finger positions correspond to a grid, so a crab could be pulled off by essentially drumming your fingers in the air.
It all looks very clever, and opens the door to a new world of controller-free DJing. But it does beggar the question — would you really want to scratch without vinyl? Would you feel comfortable stood in front of a Mac doing little more than fidgeting? Is there anything in DJing that you would be happy doing without a physical control?
Oh and marvel at how I didn’t mention Minority Report once.