There are many gestural interfaces under development, but our fingers remain one of the most useful tools we have. Fujitsu's FingerLink lets your fingers control a scanner and projector for printed information, acting as a bridge between digital and analog tech.
The prototype uses off-the-shelf cameras and projectors. Fujitsu's image-processing software links the two.
It can accurately detect where your fingers are as you touch or swipe any printed matter, letting you copy text or images and project them elsewhere. The size of projected images can similarly be adjusted with a fingertip.
It could be useful if you're leafing through a newspaper (remember those?) or something similarly unwieldy, and you want to quickly extract specific blocks of text or images.
The system even works with irregularly shaped objects such as book pages, which are often convex, effectively turning books into paper touchscreens.
"The technology is capable of fingertip tracking speeds of 300mm (11.8 inches) per second, thereby enabling it to follow natural finger movements," Fujitsu said in a release.
"This new technology makes it possible to easily have interactions with actual objects and serve as an interface between people and (information and communication technology) services."
The company aims to further develop FingerLink, which could also be used to manipulate 3D CAD data, ahead of commercialization in fiscal 2014. Check out the vid below from DigInfo News.