At present we can navigate a computer screen through gestures, but soon our hands can reach inside the computer to touch and interact with digital documents. Jinha Lee, a TED fellow and a student at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has been working in collaboration with Microsoft to design the SpaceTop 3D computer.
The SpaceTop 3D features a transparent LED display and camera-monitored gesture controls to create the illusion of a box behind the monitor.
Lee said on his website:
It extends the traditional desktop interface with interaction technology and visualization techniques that enable seamless transitions between 2D and 3D manipulations.
SpaceTop allows users to type, click, draw in 2D, and directly manipulate interface elements that float in the 3D space above the keyboard.
The SpaceTop 3D is currently just a prototype and no consumer devises are currently planned. But it does provide a glimpse at what desktop computing could be like in the future.