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If you want to control your computer by just waving your hands in the air, you could do something challenging like hacking a Kinect system, or you could simply get this Tom Cruise in Minority Report style mousing glove.

Even among those of us who aren't fluent in geek speak, most are at least casually familiar with the concepts of software and hardware: the digital ghost and the shell. But there is a third computer component without which the other two would be meaningless. We're talking about meatware,* or the tech that connects computers to the meaty organic components, aka you.

Today, we access the digital world various types of user interfaces (or a UI): keyboards, touchscreens, Kinect; anything that facilitates information transfer between flesh and silicon. And this tech works well enough. However, compared to the connectivity within a computer or within the brain, contemporary UIs are little more than annoying speed bumps along the road to the Matrix.

But fear not, future human batteries in training! Researchers from around the world are hard at work developing ways to mainline the virtual world directly into your brain. No middle man required. Here we present some of the coolest upcoming technology that will collapse the divide between meat and machine.