If you’re engineering hardware that has any one of: a camera, an LED, a display, an IR sensor, a lens, a laser, a reflector, or an optical fiber, guess what?! You’re working with an optical system. What’s more, there’s an entire branch of engineering that specializes in optics. And, if you’re not involving an optical…
Imagine an interactive air screen that puts an image/video/CAD model into the air. Now imagine that image stays totally penetrable for physical objects and is powered by a multi-touch optical system that is controlled by your gestures, sans gloves, controllers, and gadgets. Now stop imagining…its real and it’s here.