Researchers at Microsoft’s Applied Sciences Group have been busy experimenting with what the desktop display of tomorrow might look like with the see-through 3D monitor.The device, developed by researchers Jinha Lee and Cati Boulanger, allows users to directly interact with the screen using their hands, which are put behind the screen and used to rifle through digital documents using hand gestures and pinching movements. You can also move virtual objects around on a 3D grid, and if all that seems too complex, you can go back to traditional 2D interaction by placing your hands back on the keyboard.The desktop uses Samsung’s transparent OLED technology along with depth cameras that sense the user’s hands, while also capturing the user’s head motion so they get the right perspective when moving about. Cati Boulanger says, “This project advances research in current display technologies, hoping to provide a more natural interaction with everyday desktop computing of the future.”Whether or not this volumetric display will make it onto the shelves, we’ll have to wait and see, but it sure does look futuristic and neatly combines the real and the virtual.[h/t @jamiezigelbaum]