The end for keyboards and mice?

You’re in fast moving traffic on a busy motorway approaching a complicated junction with just seconds to get into the right lane. Your phone, sensing that now is not the moment to disturb you, diverts an incoming call straight to voicemail. Later, when you are in a more relaxed state, it plays the message back and offers to …

Look ahead But there are a host of other devices on the horizon, including Google Glass – an ‘augmented reality’ headset that overlays the world with graphics. (Copyright: Getty Images)

Tap and go Touchscreen technology, popularised by Apple’s iPhone and a host of other devices, has begun to erode the dominance of traditional keyboards. (Copyright: Getty Images)

Point and click More complex brain interfaces are used to help paralysed patients control computers, allowing them to type by highlighting letters on a grid, for example. (Copyright: G-Tec)

Look ahead But there are a host of other devices on the horizon, including Google Glass – an ‘augmented reality’ headset that overlays the world with graphics. (Copyright: Getty Images)

Tap and go Touchscreen technology, popularised by Apple’s iPhone and a host of other devices, has begun to erode the dominance of traditional keyboards. (Copyright: Getty Images)

Point and click More complex brain interfaces are used to help paralysed patients control computers, allowing them to type by highlighting letters on a grid, for example. (Copyright: G-Tec)

Leap forward The idea of tracking gestures is also at the heart of the Leap Motion which works in a similar way to Microsoft’s Kinect system and will go on sale soon. (Copyright: Leap Motion)

Floating future Other research explores ‘tangible computing’ – using physical objects to control on-screen action. MIT’s ZeroN uses a ball suspended in a magnetic field. (Copyright: Jinha Lee/MIT)

Hand control Others systems that augment the real world include Sixth Sense, a prototype developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) that responds to gestures. (Copyright: SPL)

Mind control Other futuristic interfaces are already on the market, including a number of headsets that interpret the brain’s electrical activity to control a cursor on screen. (Copyright: SPL)

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