Ethertouch is working with the likes of Nokia, Bang & Olufsen and Microsoft to create applications for its touch-free technology, which can sense your finger movements in 3D. The system would replace keypads or mice with non-tactile control via motions or gestures that will enable you to simply point at a desired area of a display screen and zoom in on the relevant section.

An array of Ethertouch sensors track the position and velocity of your finger or hand as it passes through the field and convert the data into a digital signal, which is then processed.

This ability to measure velocity as well as position makes the technology particularly attractive to the computer games industry, where it could enable a new level of immersion in VR gaming.

The touch-free interfaces could appear on the market by the end of next year.

Via The Engineer Online.

Other Minority Report-like interfaces: Geo-spatial gestural interface, “Data-rich” environment for scientific discovery, Raytheon’s, etc.