If you’ve seen the Tom Cruise Minority Report who-dunnit sci-fi movie and are hoping to see the kind of interactive technology they use for accessing and manipulating data come to life, the wait may not be too long. MIT Media Lab researchers have already got a working concept of an LCD display that’s been embedded with optical sensors designed to read hand gestures. The concept is fantastic and absolutely brilliant. The technology we’re looking at after proper R&D has been conducted is exactly the kind we would see in the movie. We’ll be able to select and manipulate object on a screen or use multi-touch operations to zoom in or out of images etc. all out of thin air, literally. We’ll be able to communicate with our computers without having to come in physical contact with the devices themselves. Look ma, only hands!

[MIT]