Remember "Minority Report," the 2002 movie where Tom Cruise prevents crime from happening? In the movie, his computer was a large translucent screen, on which he manipulated various images and data using nothing but his hands. That's not so outlandish anymore, and it may change the way presentations are made.
Microsoft has released Surface, a technology for doing something very similar. A hard plastic surface is the equivalent of the computer screen, and under the surface are infrared scanners, a modem, and a projector, which detect the movements of your hands and interpret them. To type, you just type on the surface. To re-size an image, you poise your hand over it and spread your fingers, and shrink it by drawing your fingers together. The technology is even able to recognize a digital camera you put on the surface, download the images from that camera, and display them on the surface for manipulation. Keyboards, mice, and other input devices will be as obsolete as a manual typewriter if this technology takes offııand presentations will be much more intuitive if you can point and move without an intervening input device.
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