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The Audiopad is a new musical instrument interface out of MIT that allows users to control beats and samples by physically moving small puck-like objects on a table. The instrument uses projected graphics to overlay information and dynamic menus onto the pad around the user’s hands.
See a short film showcasing the audiopad: quicktime movie

info about the MIT researcher responsible for the audiopad

Touch-screen style interfaces have traditionally remained limited to kiosks and pocket computers mostly because PC consumers and businesses have been entrenched in the idea of a perpendicular monitor screen with keyboard and mouse interfaces flat on the desk beneath them. Experiments and advances in user-interface design at MIT tend to raise larger questions and hint at future paradigm shifts in the field. Who needs a mouse if you can just move your hands in 3D space? Who needs a monitor if you can see all the dynamic information right at your fingertips, at the point of contact and control?