In an aim to change everyday life, three young entrepreneurs jumped into a start-up and recently launched their first product that could possibly do just that.

The 3-D multi-touch controller called “Haptix” works similarly to technology in the movie “Minority Report,” in which detectives drag their fingers on a screen, zooming in and out.

Haptix turns any flat surface into a control pad, which users can then use to control their computers, TV or any other device.

“A change in how we interact with computers is long overdue, and we hope others will find Haptix as useful a device as we ourselves have,” said Xue Lai, 21, who established start-up Ractiv and developed Haptix along with Lim Darren, 20, and Lee Hyun-ki, 21.

Xue, CTO of the start-up, is in charge of dealing with patent law and financial issues, CEO Lim is mainly in charge of the technical parts, and COO Lee works on design and communicating with suppliers. 

The device can recognize not only fingers but also pencils and brushes, giving users different options for styluses.

Lim received the 2013 Thiel Fellowship, a fellowship that gives $100,000 and guidance to students under the age of 20 who drop out of college to pursue other work, including scientific research and beginning a start-up. Xue was the youngest engineer at Intel.

Lim and Xue have been working on the idea and expanding their team for the past year. In order to complete and finance the last phase of production for Haptix, they have launched the product on crowdfunding platform Kickstarter. With a $65 pledge ($59 for early birds), backers will be the first to receive a Haptix as soon as it is ready to ship.

The funding campaign has already exceeded their goal of $100,000, marking $110,000 as of Tuesday with the help of around 1,300 backers.

A similar 3-D controller called “Leap Motion,” which allows users to control IT devices by moving their hands in the air, was released in July, but Ractiv says they have different functions and no technology overlap.

They first met at international school in Sichuan, China, and spent day and night together with the same goal to transform everyday life with technology.

The “three musketeers” participated in the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair, the world’s largest pre-college science competition in 2009 and 2010 where they won first and second place, respectively.

They hold patents in the United States and are in the works of filing others in Korea, Singapore, and China.

By Kim Young-won (wone0102@heraldcorp.com)