Remember the Leap Motion, the movement-sensing hardware device that was going to change the world? Well, it was supposed to arrive in May and promptly blow all of our minds, but it's still not here yet.

However, the gesture-tracking platform is at least one hand-swipe closer to reality. Leap Motion, the company that makes the hardware controller of the same name, is rolling out its developer portal and SDK to the public this week.

The tiny trackers themselves won't ship until July 22, but this week's software release should help get developers up to speed on how to code for the hardware before the controllers finally ship. Any developers who sign up for the beta program will get the Leap Motion SDK, as well as access to the developer web portal.

Leap Motion CEO Michael Buckwald told me that there are only a few beta items in the app store for now, mostly because developers who have access to the hardware haven't finished their apps yet, but also because some developers who do have the sensors and have finished their apps have chosen to remain secretive and keep their work under wraps until the hardware debuts.

This week's release also doesn't mean the company will be releasing more of its devices to developers, Buckwald says. By releasing the beta SDK, more developers will be clued in to the Leap Motion's specific capabilities, and the web forum will give them the opportunity to talk with other devs who already have the device. This new crop of developers in the developer portal will still have to wait until the Leap Motion ships on July 22.

When I interviewed Buckwald at the company's office in San Francisco, I got to play with the Leap Motion again. And it's still awesome.

Announced last year, the Leap Motion gesture-based controller has already attracted some very big name developers. It's been adopted by Google for navigation of Google Earth. Asus is testing it for use in the company's all-in-ones and laptops, and HP is planning on using it to add gesture capabilities to its consumer PCs later this year.

Even with all the interest, the device maker has hit more than a few bumps. The initial ship date of May 13 was pushed back to July 22. Buckwald says his company pushed the release back in order to do some more comprehensive testing, the fruits of which have made their way into today's beta released.

So, fingers crossed for tons of hand-waving come the end of July.

Update: An earlier version of this article reported that the Airspace app store was available as part of this week's opening of the SDK and developer portal. The Airspace app store is only available to the initial 10,000 developers that have already been granted access to beta program.