Hitachi is showing off a tabletop screen and projector system that you'd expect to see military planners poring over in a James Bond film, or CSI detectives comparing photos of a crime scene on.

The projector displays the image on a 77-inch white board, the FX-77 Duo Starboard from Hitachi, where the user can manipulate data using hand and finger gestures as if they're using a touch-screen.

In a demonstration at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Tommy Quach of Hitachi Software attached a PC to a Hitachi CPA-A100 Ultra Short Throw Distance Projector and surfed the Internet in touch-screen fashion, using his hands to call up Google Earth and view neighborhoods and homes in San Francisco. Hitachi provides software that allows users to highlight, draw on and manipulate data as it's being used.

The system mimics a touch-screen by using two optical sensors on the Duo Starboard that follow the user's hands. Tapping a finger on a document or picture opens it, and Quach used hand movements to sort through, pull up and swivel photos. The software includes a virtual keyboard to enter new data.

The projector and Duo Starboard are aimed at people who want to jointly view pictures, blueprints, maps and other data on a table, while still being able to call up whatever other data they require from an attached PC or the Internet.

Hitachi began selling the FX-77 Duo Starboard in September for around US$1,995, while the CPA-A100 projector isn't due out until the end of March, at a price of $2,995.

Any projector can be used with the Duo Starboard, a Hitachi spokeswoman said, but the CPA-A100 was designed for projecting at short distances and has inputs for connecting other devices for viewing.

The IDG News Service is a Network World affiliate.