Extracting text and images from newspapers and books can be a little daunting – involving long and tedious periods of scanning and editing.

Fujitsu Laboratories have developed a new gestural interface that provides a solution to this problem. FingerLink allows users to seamlessly transfer data between the real and virtual worlds, turning almost any object into a touchscreen. The system detects a user’s finger and allows them to draw boxes around the text that needs to be copied. Users can then extract this material and project it elsewhere.

The size of the images can also be adjusted moved around, expanded or shrunk. Virtual copies of items can also be ‘stored’ within the interface.

Interestingly, the system doesn’t use any specialist hardware, consisting of only a webcam-like device and a projector. The technology is still at a prototype stage, but researches believe that a commercial version will be readily available next year, perhaps putting an end to traditional scanners.