Pranav Mistry of MIT Media Lab has invented an invisible mouse he calls “Mouseless.”  By combining an infrared (IR) laser beam and an IR camera inside the side of a laptop, software can detect and track your hand movement atop of a flat surface and convert it into on-screen mouse movement, left/right clicks, and pinch/scroll gestures.  Want to get a bit more technical?

The laser beam module is modified with a line cap and placed such that it creates a plane of IR laser just above the surface the computer sits on. The user cups their hand, as if a physical mouse was present underneath, and the laser beam lights up the hand which is in contact with the surface. The IR camera detects those bright IR blobs using computer vision. The change in the position and arrangements of these blobs are interpreted as mouse cursor movement and mouse clicks. As the user moves their hand the cursor on screen moves accordingly. When the user taps their index finger, the size of the blob changes and the camera recognizes the intended mouse click.

It’s pretty incredible.  The protoype costs a mere $20, so if this technology were to be picked up by a major manufacturer I’m sure it would be a simple addition.   See it in action in the video above.  And check out some relevant stills in the gallery below.

[Via Gizmodo; YouTube; pranavmistry]