Leap Motion

With the Leap, San Francisco startup Leap Motion is taking hands-free motion control, a type of technology pioneered for the Wii game console by Nintendo and then improved upon by Microsoft's Kinect, and giving it a very impressive boost. The new technology, which allows users to control what's on their computers with accuracy down to the hundredth of a millimeter, is likely to impact industries from gaming to surgery to architecture, engineering, and design.

Expected to cost $70 and be released sometime early next year, the Leap should significantly advance the state of the art.

See the whole list of Breakthrough Award winners here.