Thank you for your comment,
First of all, I acquire data from Leap Motion and then I use matlab to process this information and I send it to Arduino using matlab, too. If you are interested connect Leap Motion with Matlab I'll explain it but I think you're more interested in how to use Arduino.
Responding at your second question, you don't need to know python. Arduino works with C language. In my case, I use Matlab language to interact with Arduino UNO. If you have already worked with matlab, I recommend you use it to work with Arduino. There you can find information about it:
http://es.mathworks.com/help/supportpkg/arduinoio/examples/getting-started-with-matlab-support-package-for-arduino-hardware.html
Matlab is usefull if you want to work with arduino in real time.
if you have more questions, please ask it.