“HoloDesk was developed by the Sensors and Device Group at Microsoft Research Cambridge, and works by creating a virtual scene of 3D objects for a user to play with. The user sits in front of a transparent optical display and can see 3D objects through it. Using their hands it is possible to grab and manipulate those objects in real-time.

Of course, the user isn’t actually feeling anything when they touch these virtual objects. The Kinect sensor is just tracking their hands and using a clever algorithm to match them up with the position of the objects in the scene and carry out the manipulations.

What’s important is the result, though. This looks to be one of the best examples yet of being able to interact with a 3D scene through “touch” and a natural user interface.”