new york r douglas mcpheters recalls his attempt to write a novel a decade ago it was a thriller about a manhattan loan shark operating in whats left of the soviet union said mcpheters a former banking and securities lawyer he never did publish the book but he became fixated on one of his fictitious inventions a holographic keypad that floats in midair from fiction to fact the keypad has become the basis for his startup company holotouch in july the company licensed his patented technology to infoperks which is planning to use it to create touchless information kiosks that would be placed on sidewalks in new york city and nearby westchester county mcpheters 60 said his invention had drawn interest in a wide range of fields including the military medical automotive and manufacturing sectors to help demonstrate his invention to potential licensees mcpheters has set up his laptop so that he can give a powerpoint presentation without touching the computer by punching his fingers into the air under his system a holographic keypad begins with a holographic image of a real keypad recorded by lasers onto a photographic film this image is mounted on a plastic plate with infrared sensors behind it that can detect when the keypad is manipulated when a light behind the plate is activated the image appears to hover in front of it nyt news service