Yoel Fink and his team from Massachusetts Institute of Technology are studying how fabrics woven from light-sensitive fibres could be embedded in computer and projector screens, and control computers by tracking the position of laser pointers, or other light sources, on the screen.

The fibres respond to light because photons hitting the semiconductor core dislodge electric charges, affecting the voltage in the fibre’s metal wires. Current changes in a grid of such fibres can then pinpoint exactly where a light source is striking the surface.

Embedding these grids in computer screens would allow us to just take light beam and communicate with the computer because the screen would know where it was being hit. No more mechanical mouse requested!

Via New Scientist.