Fans of the Microsoft Surface concept have often complained that one of its major drawbacks is the large size of the tables so far created. However, a research project discovered on the company’s own research site has revealed its investigations into the possibility of taking the technology mobile.
The research site says of Surface Mobile: “It is a novel interaction system for mobile computing. Our goal is to bring Microsoft Surface experience to mobile scenarios, and more importantly, to enable 3D interaction with mobile devices. We do research on how to transform any surface (e.g., a coffee table or a piece of paper) to Mobile Surface with a mobile device and a camera-projector system. Besides this, our work also includes how to get 3D object models in real-time, augmented reality and multiple-layer 3D information presentation.”
Combine this idea with the recently announced developments in pico projection chips from TI, and it’s clear the hardware requirements are essentially in place.
The project was spotted at TechFest 2010.