3D touch interface

In Tokyo (where else?) a team lead by Hideki Koike at the Electro-Communications department of Tokyo University, develop a tactile interface using rubber to allow the user to actually touch 3D things.

Transparent rubber (which is The Mythbusters favourite), an overhead camera and an LCD panel is used to create this 'stretch and squeeze'-interface. "The camera detects the diffraction of light as it passes through the three-dimensional transparent rubber, interpreting your moves and the force you apply to its surface. There's only one disadvantage: The overhead camera. The problem is that the user's hand can get in the way sometimes, which will give erroneous results. They are planning to embed the camera inside the LCD" (Source: Gizmodo).