Images you can move with your hands

Did you ever watch Minority Report or any MCU movie and drool over the idea of having a computer interface you could reach into and manipulate through touch? Well, researchers at Universidad de Navarra have come up with a novel way to get us there.

First off, the caveats: there is a light sense of touch, but it’s incidental to the process. This isn’t a holodeck. And if you want to get very technical, it’s not a hologram. But for the purposes most people care about, it’s a three-dimensional image you can manipulate directly with your hand.

Many current generators of this kind of 3d illusion rely on spinning blades as a projection surface. Needless to say, people weren’t lining up to test grabbing one of those while it was running. The solution is rubber bands. Holding them at both ends and wobbling a framework, the scientists were able to create a projection surface that was safe for human hands. The problem of what happens when you reach into it and deform the elastic projection surface was solved with error correction software that accounted for the altered surface.

(I’m going to go out on a limb and say the math on that last bit was a significant factor in getting any of this to work. “They used math” is a really simple way to sum up a ton of work for the person who performed said math.)

Like many laboratory technologies, this one isn’t available for consumer use just yet. But by the time we’re ready to build the first Arc Reactor or start tracking down pre-criminals, there just might be a 3d interface for you to do it.

P.S.: Keep an eye out for this one at a Consumer Elections Show (CES) someday!