Image navigation with a sci-fi touch

Taking a page out of a science-fiction novel, Microsoft's research labs have come up with a way for people to navigate computer images using their hands to change their point of view.

However, borrowing in equal measure from its recent business handbook, Microsoft is not going to develop the technology itself, but is instead licensing the technology, known as TouchLight, to a start-up company.

Microsoft is licensing the idea to Eon Reality, which will use it in its existing interactive products for the commercial, motor, aerospace and defence industries. Eon's current products offer 3D displays, but don't allow a user to interact via touch.

With TouchLight, people can use their hands to, among other things, tilt and pan an image, such as a design of a refrigerator or an aeroplane. The technology is similar to one that has long been captured in fantasy novels and on the big screen, including Minority Report, in which Tom Cruise's character is able to pull up information on criminals on a glass screen using just a wave of his hands.

Unlike in that film, people using TouchLight don't have to use special gloves or glasses or a headset.

Eon said that it plans to use the technology as part of in-store displays during the next two years and hopes that in two to three years the technology will be affordable enough for use on desktop computers.

Microsoft's move to license TouchLight is the latest in a series of moves since the company announced last spring it would start licensing its research technology to start-ups. This April, it licensed a social-networking technology code-named Wallop to a company by the same name.

Microsoft is not taking an equity stake in Eon and will receive licensing payments only when Eon has sales from a product using TouchLight. Other financial details were not disclosed.

The company will demonstrate TouchLight at an event today at its Silicon Valley offices, as part of an event discussing intellectual property issues and the software industry.

News.com's Neha Tiwari contributed to this report.