Nearly all of the 3D and motion control tech that’s come out in the last couple years has been nothing more than hokey gimmicks, worthless for anything besides its “gee wiz” factor.

This isn’t.

Microsoft of all companies is developing the first useful, usable implementation of 3D display/motion tracking that I’ve seen.  The underlying wedge lens technology is interesting, but skip to the 2:50 mark to see how they’re making the first glassesless, position-independent 3D display.  Like a true hologram, this technique actually allows you to look around objects in 3d space, to a certain extent.

It’s not particularly useable in a living room, but it’s immensely useful for a computer monitor.  Expect this tech to be built into most monitors within about 5 years.

(Source: youtube.com)