Take a look inside the MIT Media Lab for an indication of what technology (and life, in general) will look like in the coming 10 years, suggests Business Insider. The article summarizes a tour taken of the Lab, where students are working on projects involving robotics to programs allowing virtual interaction with the real world — all projects guaranteed to get you thinking about the future.

“MIT Media Lab has more than 20 different groups working on computing, speech technologies, tangible media, fluid interfaces, and much more,” explains Business Insider. The Tangible Media group, for example, focuses on the interaction between physical objects and computational systems. “Its goal is to bring the virtual world and all of its information physically closer to us.”

The article highlights some exciting ongoing projects, like inTouch, which has two physical elements connected through computer software. “The two connected objects consist of rollers attached to a base. When one person rotates the rollers on his or her respective device, the person on the other object can feel it on their device,” explains BI. “Even though you’re physically separated, inTouch creates an illusion that you’re right there with the person, as you can feel their hand movements.”

There’s also the iPad-based Second Surface, through which it is possible to annotate the real world. “If you’re in a park, for example, just hold the iPad camera up to a park bench to leave a note, photo, or drawing. When someone else goes to that same location, they can see your note, along with annotations from anyone else whom has visited that same spot,” writes the article.

Another exciting project is ZeroN, “a magnetic ball that floats and moves in a 3D space. Packed with infrared cameras, a magnetic levitator, motor controller, and two projectors, users can place and manipulate the ball anywhere within the 3D space. The magnetic ball can also move entirely on its own, and interact with virtual objects in the 3D environment. If you wanted to simulate planetary motion, you could place two additional circular objects in the space, and see how the magnetic ball’s orbit changes,” the article explains.

It goes on: “Using ZeroN as a camera, you could also create a 3D camera path for rendering virtual scenes of architectural models. Since the ZeroN remembers how it’s been moved, any gesture-controlled paths can be played back for educational purposes.”