Kinect, now with click-and-drag!

Remember how cool it was in Iron Man when Tony Stark moved his computer around with just a wave of his hand? Remember how much we wanted the computers in Minority Report when Tom Cruise could physically move the windows instead of using a mouse? Remember how much Carpel Tunnel Syndrome sucks? Well, the future tends to fix current problems and this future might be right around the corner. Introducing Kinect!

Wait, hold on… Wasn’t Kinect that thing that’s already out? Isn’t it on the 360? Isn’t it already old news? Well fear not, naysayers! You may know that the Xbox 360 is made by Microsoft. Microsoft also just happens to make computers. Like, all the computers everywhere. Some genius thought that this might make for some interesting cross-over tech and went ahead and developed a way to hook the Kinect motion sensing device to a Windows 7 PC. That genius was Wolfgang Herfurtner, the CEO of Evoluce, a German company that develops multi-touch LCD screens.

The result was this awesome press release and some neat info on Herfurtner’s blog. He also uploaded this cool video.

I’m excited for this. This really could make for some cool new computer controls. Flying through a virtual New York City on Google Earth, editing a photo with extra precision using your hands on Photoshop, or just sending emails by writing in the air. If this can pan out into a popular feature on Windows 7, the cool future tech of 2054 in Minority Report may be a couple decades closer.