Bonnie Cha

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Leap Motion, HP Team Up to Bring Gesture Controls to PCs

Leap Motion, the creators of a motion-control sensor that allows you to interact with computers using hand gestures, announced today that it has struck a deal with HP to bring its technology to some of the company’s PCs and laptops.

The partnership with HP is noteworthy because this is the first time the Leap motion controller will be integrated into computers. The San Francisco-based startup already has plans to sell the Leap as a standalone device for $80. In January, Leap Motion also announced a deal to bundle its sensor with some Asus notebooks and PCs.

“When we first introduced the product, we knew the peripheral was great, because you could take your existing Mac or PC and transform it into a gesture-based machine,” said Michael Zagorsek, vice president of marketing at Leap Motion, in an interview with AllThingsD. “But we felt the future of motion control was being in as many devices as possible, and this partnership with HP is a step in that direction.”

The deal has the potential to be beneficial to both parties. As the world’s market leader in the PC sector, HP can get Leap in front of people at a larger scale. Meanwhile, Leap’s technology can help HP differentiate itself from its competitors. In fact, Zagorsek said that HP first approached them about bringing Leap to its products.

The companies did not share details about specific devices or release dates at this time, but did say that select HP products bundled with the Leap motion controller will start shipping this summer. Then they will launch laptops and PCs embedded with the technology. All Leap-enabled HP devices will also come preloaded with Airspace, Leap Motion’s application store.

As for what’s next, Zagorsek said the company really wants to concentrate on the PC and laptop market for now and is talking with other computer manufacturers, but mobile devices are definitely part of the strategy.

“Obviously, the world is going mobile, so smartphones and tablets are on our road map,” he said. “We want to make sure we’re in as many places as makes sense.”

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