Motion-sensor controls computer through the wiggle of a finger

WITH a flick of the wrist, a computer springs to life. Wiggle a finger, and a new screen appears.

This is no longer the stuff of Star Wars and Minority Report.

Nor is motion sensing just a toy, like the Xbox Kinect.

Soon, a full motion-based computer interface will make your computers much more "hands on".

Mashable reports that a $70 sensor called The Leap will be in stores early next year.

It has taken five years of development to get the device responsive enough to track the minor movement of fingers well enough to become an effective control device.

The objective: to simplify complicated tasks on a computer.

"If you want to make a cup, any five-year-old can take a piece of clay and make something that resembles a cup," Leap Motion CEO Michael Buckwald told Mashable. "But on the computer, the process is very difficult."

The aim, now, is to be able to point your way through on-screen navigation, draw and write with your finger in the air, and move files and "mould" shapes with your hands.

The device uses a mesh of tightly-packed sensors to constantly track the movements of all five fingers of a hand.

The device simply plugs into existing PCs and laptops via a USB port.

As for compatible software, it runs with pre-existing applications designed to be used with touch technology such as touch-pads and touch-screens.

"Because you can see a hand on screen, and it so precisely mirrors your own hand, it really starts to feel like that is your own hand very quickly," Mr Buckwald said.