Have you ever dreamed of owning the minority report computer? What about the cool technology of some of the other famous movie computers like HAL or SkyNET? What about computers from Star Trek and Star Wars? Well to be honest with you, your day may be closer than you think!

With technologies like Microsoft Surface, G-Speak and the newest of the technologies Sixth Sense all of our fantasy computers are slowly coming to life. Microsoft Surface was unveiled at CES 2008, while G-Speak is more recent and Sixth Sense being the newest of the technologies they all offer something completely different.

Microsoft Surface is a multi-touch table top interface with a series of cameras that “sees” what is on the surface of the screen. This interface interacts with phones, cameras and other wireless capable data devices to transfer and exchange information.  This technology is already being utilized in locations such as AT&T stores and Harrah’s Casinos.

G-Speak, referred to as a spatial operating environment by its creators, Oblong Industries is a very unique technology. Using gloves, multiple very large screens and even a tabletop screen, this operating environment allows for many possibilities. With simple hand gestures and finger movement it seems as if almost anything is possible.  From editing movie clips, photo editing and even just sifting through endless data everything seems very seamless.

Sixth Sense Technology, created by Pranav Mistry(an MIT grad student) and helped along by TED, is the newest and probably most inexpensive and practical. Sixth Sense Technology consists of a small projector, camera and finger sensors all worn as very lightweight and simple accessories. Sixth Sense can project on almost any surface, be used as a camera, cell phone, watch and pretty much anything else you can put your mind to. Some of the cool features are showing you flight information on your boarding pass, giving you time with a simulated watch, telling you what products are best for you at the store, giving you ratings of a book in the bookstore and even telling you information about that person you just met. This technology could literally make EVERYTHING interactive by connecting to a database called CLOUD which holds all the information for the device.

With all this technology at our fingertips, what could possibly be next? Holograms? Maybe even the computer in Iron Man? Oh yeah and of course where will the gaming world fit into all of this? From Microsoft XBox 360’s NATAL to Sony Playstation 3’s motion controller you never know where all this will lead us to.