Healthcare Robotics is hard at work developing a robot that will interact with the world at the click of a laser pointer. Simply point at an object, and the robot will go and pick it up.
In our object fetching application there are initially virtual buttons surrounding objects within the environment. If the user illuminates an object ("clicks it") the robot moves to the object, grasps it, and lifts it up. Once the robot has an object in its hand, a separate set of virtual buttons get mapped onto the world. At this point, clicking near a person tells the robot to deliver the object to the person. Clicking on a tabletop tells the robot to place the object on the table. While clicking on the floor tells the robot to move to the selected location.
One obvious application would be to assist people with limited mobility. Click the link for a video of the robot in action.