Earlier today, I posted a piece on a group of researchers who have discovered a major security flaw with any and all USB accessories. Suffice it to say this is a novel solution: why not remove an accessory from the equation?

Computer mice are old hat. They haven’t had a major design breakthrough in a long while. Besides moving to optical and sporting ever-finer resolutions, they’re pretty much done evolving. It could be argued that mice, therefore, have reached the pinnacle of their evolution – if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. But whatever, let’s throw our mice out anyway. But what will we use instead?

Nothing.

Enter Mouseless, a new interaction design concept by Pranav Mistry, Patti Maes, and Liyan Chang that does away with the computer mouse in favour of… the illusion of a computer mouse. How practical, guys. Seriously, though, it’s kind of a cool idea. Working in tandem, an IR laser and camera keep track of your hand’s movement and, presumably, where your fingers are breaking the laser field, creating a mouse experience without the mouse itself. Think Minority Report, only not as exciting.

Personally, I don’t think this would, or should, replace a trusty mouse any time soon, but it would be a pretty handy addition to a laptop, where the less you have to lug around, the better.

And now, for the cutest presentation video you’re going to see all day.