"The Digits sensor doesn't rely on external infrastructure which means users are not bound to a fixed space, " said project leader David Kim.

BBC: Digits demo screenshot

Jiawen Chen and David Kim, both of the Interactive 3D technologies team, showed off, respectively, KinEtre technology for animating scanned objects, and a wrist device for gesture control.

BBC: Possessed furniture: Inside Microsoft's UK research lab

Other photographs courtesy of Bill Ray, Anne Bowerman, Polaroid, Marie Cosindas, Nan Lane Rudolph, Chuck Close and the Pace Gallery, Mark Sink, Ted Voss, Danny Kim, Bonnier Corporation, David Levinthal, Patrick Nagatani and the WestLicht Collection, Jamie Livingston, Christopher Bonanos, Bradley Laurent and The Impossible Project, Danny Kim and John Reuter.

BBC: The Polaroid genius who re-imagined the way we take photos

Fluke, Nancy Gill, David Goldman, John Gorham, Peter Kafka, Nancy Kim, Shailaja Neelakantan, Peter Newcomb, Shlomo Z.

FORBES: Do they know something you don't know?