ZeroN system holds a ball wherever you place it, in mid-air

Oh, they do this with classical electromagnets and computer vision. Lame.<p>I thought this was going to be a quantum spin locking demo at large distances (&#62;10cm): <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&#38;v=Ws6AAhTw7RA" rel="nofollow">http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&#38;v=W...</a>

If the electromagnet can hold the metal ball in mid-air with precision, it can move it around in mid-air in a controlled manner. That can have a lot of applications. Something as simple as raising the phone to my hand when my palm hovers on top of it, or assembly something in mid-air in a controlled manner.

Found some related projects: <a href="http://www.leejinha.com/Beyond" rel="nofollow">http://www.leejinha.com/Beyond</a> This is quite clever. It's a input device that exists halfway between physical and virtual space.

This is the reason this guy works at MIT and not Apple.

Source: <a href="http://www.leejinha.com/zeron" rel="nofollow">http://www.leejinha.com/zeron</a>

Finally! Pong IRL!

Makes me think of Arthur Clarke's laws of prediction.<p><i>When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong.<p>The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible.<p>Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.</i>

<i>the technology has many potential applications. Using the side-mounted projector, for instance, images can be projected onto the surface of the ZeroN. They will not only stay with it through 3D space, but will also rotate with it as it spins in place. This feature could allow it to be labelled, then used to help visualize physics problems – instead of simply thinking the problems through or looking at two-dimensional computer models, physicists could actually reach in and manipulate models of objects such as electrons by hand</i><p>Nice try, but I think we can file this under the heading "solutions looking really hard for problems".<p>Things I have never, ever heard anyone say: "Man, this problem would be <i>so</i> much easier to visualize if only I had a bunch of metal balls suspended in mid-air".<p>Don't get me wrong, it would be kinda cool. But the number of people who'd actually find it useful enough to justify whatever the cost might be is probably zero.

Put a laser on it and give me a light sabre and..