'No-touch' phones, tablets, TV? Microsoft to power new tech

US tech giant Microsoft is working on next generation technology that will enable 'no-touch' phones, tablets and television sets that can be operated from afar, without the need to swipe them.

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The technology will allow users to control a screen with their fingers even from the other side of the room and put their hands through a screen to 'touch' objects.

Microsoft said it is has begun to create machines that move far beyond touchscreens.

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Rico Malvar, Microsoft's chief scientist, said work has begun on new screens that can be manipulated without needing to approach a gadget.

The company is building an electronic bracelet that can detect movements in a person's fingers, allowing them to imitate the actions of poking and flicking the screen to operate a device. 

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The bracelet would allow people to operate a television despite having their back turned or control a mobile phone with their hands in their pockets, 'The Times' reported.

Microsoft has also unveiled new "interactive displays".

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Among them is a "floating display", which gives the illusion of a globe spinning or a dragon flying, just inches above a flat monitor.

Cameras and motion sensors then allow people to interact with these floating objects.

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Another prototype allows someone sitting in front of a large screen to see a series of cubes.

They can then slip their hands behind the device in order to "touch" these objects.

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This device operates by surrounding a screen with cameras that can detect the user and their movements, matching them to on-screen items.

Tim Large, a researcher from Microsoft's Applied Sciences Group, said that final versions of these displays will be ready in two to five years.