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The other day I watched a toddler approach a flat-screen television and, with Cheetos-encrusted fingers, try to swipe the boring show away. Such is life in the touch screen age. But just as we are getting used to swiping and typing on phone and tablet glass, a new breakthrough could make our physical screens obsolete within the next five years.

As Carnegie Mellon grad student Chris Harrison explained to me, gadgets with screens the size of oyster cracker have inspired new ways to "steal" everyday surfaces to replace the computer screen. By using tiny projectors that sense your every move, you'll soon be able to read and write email on a wall or table top. Or surf the web on the palm of your hand or the leg of your jeans.

In a project with Microsoft, he's also developed "Skinput." It is a bio-accousic sensor that converts the tapping of your forearm or fingertips into commands for a music player or video game. So along with new advances in voice-recognition software, it won't be long before the mouse, keyboard and game controller are replaced by the snap of a finger and a spoken command.