I saw a lot of interesting technologies last week at the Design West conference, in San Jose. One of the coolest products I spotted on the show floor was a touchless touch screen, from Qualstar.

It's exactly like it sounds—a "touch-screen" display that you don't actually have to make physical contact with to control. The device works by using two infrared cameras in the corners of the screen to create an invisible light curtain. When the user's finger penetrates the curtain, the cameras triangulate its position.

The benefit for medical applications is obvious: Eliminating contact with the screen also eliminates a point of contamination in the clinical or lab environment. The Touchless Touch Screen could be used to scroll through x-ray images or on dialysis machines, Qualstar engineering manager William J. Lurie Jr. told me.

The technology is scalable, and the company says its response time is 10 times faster than a typical touch screen, as well as one-tenth of the cost. Qualstar also has a touchless mouse product, the Topo Jojo.

Jamie Hartford is associate editor of MED and MD+DI. Follow her on Twitter at @readMED.