At TED there are thinkers and there are doers. People stand on stage and talk about concepts, ideas, theories, and ideas. Then in the gallery area, there are products – mostly companies, that present ideas that have evolved into things that are manufactured. The space between, from idea to execution – isn’t something that is often visible.

In the middle of all this stands Jeff. He’s like a kid in a candy store. He’s built an application so immediately cool that everyone who touches it wants to put it to use. At the same time, He’s so clearly built something that WILL become part of our work place, our schools, and our homes that you can’t help but think he already knows that.

Here, take a look

It doesn’t have a name, or if it does - Jeff didn’t tell me.

But he did demonstrate. A 20 foot wide touch screen video space that is operated by gestures. Hand movements, figures tips spreading and contracting. He’s build a few demonstration applications that help you understand the potential impact this interface will have.

First, there’s mapping. Google Maps, Google Earth, detailed images that can be cut, paste, zoomed, and layered. Because the screen can be used by more than one person at the same time… immediately geogphrayp is dynamic and engaging. It’s hypnotic.

Then, there’s real time video. With a click, the Han wall has 200 videos from you tube – playing all in real time. You can order them, cut them, past them. Resize them. Remember the video wall from Minority Report? Han built it.

And then there’s Flicker. You type in a key word and all the images from across the web that are findable are layed out in a wonderful mosaic. Here too you can cut and past, draw on top of them. Re-order, replace, stack and unstuck.

The applications for art directors is obvious. The application for education is immediate. You want one in your office, your kids school, your living room. Once you put your hands on the Han screen, you don’t wan to stop playing. It’s the best UI I’ve seen since the first time I saw a Mac Desktop in 1986. Wow.

And the crowds proved it. People stood, started, touched, played, just flat our loved the idea that the static world of the web is now something that can be played with poster size.

Han hasn’t taken a dime of Venture Capital, and my guess is he won’t have too. He’s already got customers, and he’s shipping units. At $200,000 each mostly to government users. One TED member with who was there from the NSA said - “heck, we’ll buy six of them.” Yup.