Tovi Grossman, Daniel Wigdor, Ravin Balakrishnan at the University of Toronto have developed a system that allows for direct gestural interaction with virtual objects contained in a crystal ball.

The interface includes 2D menus projected on the display and a browser for selecting 3D objects used to construct models. The browser uses a grid that contains images of objects like cubes, spheres and pyramids.

With finger gestures tracked by cameras, users can point at objects, trigger commands, and move, rotate or resize 3D models projected in the display.

It could eventually be used as an interface for 3D medical, architectural and graphic design applications.

Video.
PDF of the research.

Via Technology Review News.