Leap Motion: 1 million app downloads in 3 weeks

Leap Motion announced today that three weeks after launching, owners of the device have already downloaded over a million apps. In addition, Leap’s developer community has doubled, and the company has seen 25,000 new downloads of its software development kit that programmers use to build new apps.

If those download numbers continue to grow, the platform’s developer community will likely double again.

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Apps in the company’s Airspace app store range from a touch-free MIDI player, Geco, for $9.99, to the Boom Ball game, which features 50 levels of a sort of modern Pong-like bowling/wrecking-ball destruction entertainment, all for free.

“We’re providing developers and users a powerful platform for creating, playing, exploring and learning, and it’s thrilling to see people around the world take their first leap with our technology,” said Leap Motion CEO and cofounder Michael Buckwald. “We’re already seeing musicians, doctors, teachers, artists, students and gamers find creative and practical uses for their Leap Motion Controllers, and we’re just getting started.”

Leap Motion is an innovative keyboard-free computer controller that senses the positioning of your hands and fingers, and enables you to control your computer — and special Leap Motion apps — with midair gestures. The $80 device is 200 times more accurate than Microsoft’s Kinect, sensing even 1/100th of a millimeter motions of all 10 fingers at 290 frames per second.

It’s about the size of a pack of gum and attaches to your computer via USB. Leap Motion is also working with HP to build the technology right into your desktop or laptop — and eventually into smartphones, tablets, smart watches, and any other type of device.

Since launch three weeks ago, 13 new apps have been added to Airspace, the company says, and many Best Buy stores that stocked the innovative hands-free computer controller have been sold out.

“We’re really excited about it,” Leap Motion VP Mike Zagorsek told me on the phone today. “It’s great to see how excited the user community has been.”

You can also use Leap Motion with Google Earth to fly virtually around the planet, using your hand like a mini-Superman to control the camera’s frame of reference.