A European researcher, depending on your point of view, has either created the cacaphonic spiritual successor of the 1920s etherphone/theremin, or the sci-fi touch interface of the future. In short, using a stethoscope-like contact microphone and complex audio processing software, Bruno Zamborlin and some French collaborators have made a gesture-recognizing touch interface out of any surface, including a balloon.

At this point you should disable your skepticism toggle, watch the video below, and then pick your jaw up off the ground. If you can’t watch the video, or you want the technical explanation of how “real time gesture recognition with contact microphones” works, read on. First of all, that little silver nugget — which seems to utilize some kind of suction cup — contains multiple microphones to create a stereo image of the sounds it hears. Second, that black cable connects to a PC of some kind; probably a laptop, considering the guy plays music on a tree and a bus shelter. On the PC, the vibrations of your fingers tapping on the surface are analyzed and converted into gestures, and then MaxMSP — a visual programming language for creating music and other multimedia experiences — turns the gestures into sounds.

Now, while playing “music” on your school/office desk is cool, this creation — called Mogees, incidentally — has far more exciting applications in the realm of touch interfaces for computers. It isn’t quite the Minority Report virtual 3D interface, but imagine if you could keep your phone in your pocket, and tap on your leg when you want to change tracks. For desktops or laptops, imagine tapping the desk or computer chassis if you want to go back to your desktop.

Unfortunately there are scant few details on the resolution of the Mogees, though the video does suggest that it can track finger movements with surprising accuracy — and it’s multi-touch, too! It’s a shame that the video doesn’t show an example of controlling a mouse pointer with Mogees — but then again, considering Zamborlin is a student of IRCAM, one of the leading music research centers, we shouldn’t be too surprised. Now if only he would release the source code…

Read more at Bruno Zamborlin’s blog