A downtown L.A. startup is trying to turn a piece of science fiction into real-world business.

Oblong Industries Inc. is marketing computers that don’t need a keyboard or mouse to operate. Instead, sensors linked to the computer screen pick up simple hand gestures as depicted in the sci-fi flick “Minority Report.”

For instance, to “type” with the computer, a virtual keyboard pops up on the screen and the user, standing several feet from the screen, points at letters to select them. The same finger-pointing technique moves the cursor. A special glove with reflectors sown into the fabric must be on, but Oblong eventually plans to make models that can be used without it – hand motion only.

“We believe that after 30 years, it’s time to replace the computer mouse,” said Kwindla Kramer, chief executive of the 25-employee company, which unveiled its technology recently at the Technology Entertainment Design conference in Long Beach, an invitation-only get-together for entertainment and technology types. Among those in attendance was Bill Gates.

John Underkoffler, one of Oblong’s founders and its chief scientist, was science adviser to the production of “Minority Report,” a 2002 film directed by Steven Spielberg and starring Tom Cruise. The character Cruise portrayed was shown manipulating 3-D images on a giant computer screen by hand motions.

After the film came out, Underkoffler and several colleagues from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology decided to try to build the computer as it was imagined in the film.

Oblong’s technology is similar to a motion-sensing gaming platform being built by Microsoft called Natal. But Oblong’s computers are much more sophisticated. Oblong’s computers can run standard programs such as Microsoft Excel or Word. However, the computer is really built for sifting through massive amounts of data, which is easier to do using your hands than a computer mouse, Kramer said. Boeing Co. is using two Oblong computers, one to track logistical supply chains and the other to help run military simulations, he added.

Two models are now on the market. One is a room-size system that has a 20-foot-wide screen. The other is a desktop unit with a 30-inch screen.

One of the company’s goals is to incorporate its technology into mass market computers. Meanwhile, don’t expect to see Oblong computers at Best Buy in the immediate future: The price tag for the room-size model runs up to $500,000.