This is a metal ball. It levitates. In midair. You can move it around however you want and then let go of it, and it'll just stick there, defying both gravity and common sense. The MIT Media Lab has worked this into an interface that lets both you and a computer communicate through the manipulation of physical objects. Flying objects!

This week at the at the IEEE International Conference on Robotics in Shanghai, China, a bunch of Japanese researchers led by Yusuke Sugahara at Tohoku University showed off a prototype transport that hovers inches above the ground without maglev rails. To put it into geeky Star Wars speak: this is the Landspeeder you're looking for.