The interfaces that bridge the human-machine divide

First it was toggle switches. And then keyboards, the mouse and other standard interface devices gave us control of computers and the digital world. From the tangible, to hands-free and beyond, the ways in which we control digital systems are expanding. We've collected just a few of the interesting products and concepts that are breaching the two-dimensional world of computing and merging it with our physical reality.

[Image: Jinha Lee / MIT Media Lab]

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Flexible topography

There've been a few incarnations of the interactive, augmented reality sandbox system, but one of the most notable -- and open-source -- projects is the one by Oliver Kreylos out of UC Davis, California. Using a Kinect 3D camera, visualization software and a data projector, you can change topology with your hands or shovels and the projected landforms and bodies of water will adjust. It was developed as a science education project for freshwater lake and watershed science, and funded by the National Science Foundation.