For example, instead of creating a user account, you now can create a user object that includes various attributes that help identify where the user account lives in the network hierarchy.

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The design looks like an object the informed user would want to pick up and hold.

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At the moment price is no object, at least for the user.

FORBES

In the lower diagram an incoming object 1806, such as a user finger, blocks one or more electrodes 1802 of solar panel 1806.

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Eventually, scientists would like prosthetic hands to provide information about an object's surface directly to the user, so he or she can consciously feel what the hand touches, Loeb said.

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Leap Motion has radically multiplied the amount and precision of interaction data a user can produce by removing the physical object interacted with.

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To that end, the team developed an iPad app that uses motion tracking technology to "map" a user interface onto different parts of an object.

ENGADGET

Total Immersion specialises in so-called web mashups, where an online user sees a video reflection of themselves coupled with a 3D object that they can control, such as camera that responds accurately to button presses, or a pair of glasses that lets the user switch the frame or colour scheme.

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Marks imagines the potential for user-generated content when users can use the controllers to take a standard 3-D object like a sword, and grab, stretch and deform it on-screen to create new custom objects with new properties.

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