Microsoft's Latest Is Flat-Out Impressive
From: Seattle Times - 07/19/2006
By: Benjamin J. Romano

Researchers at Microsoft are working on a technology that can use any smooth
flat surface as a computer display and user interface, complete with software
to monitor hand movements in lieu of a mouse and keyboard. The technology,
called PlayAnywhere, can interface with a piece of paper, a cell phone on the
desk, and other items. PlayAnywhere is a more intuitive method of interacting
with computers, said Guri Sohi, chair of the computer science department at
the University of Wisconsin. "I think that's much more powerful," said Sohi,
one of the many computer science professors attending the Microsoft Research
Faculty Summit. With no specific commercial applications in the works, the
project is meant to be a more general test of sensing and display
technologies. Another innovation showcased at the summit was a technology
that could create a richly detailed panoramic image that could fill out a
billboard. The image on display depicted the Seattle skyline, and consisted
of 800 distinct images taken from the top of a building one morning in
February. The image is 700 times larger than a normal photo taken by a
standard consumer digital camera, according to Microsoft's Matt Uyttendaele.
Microsoft has also developed a digital version of the family calendar that
stores the last 100 changes made, so parents can undelete appointments or
notes if needed. 

Read the entire article at:
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2003136328_msftresearch19.html

Links:
Portable Augmented Reality
http://www.turbulence.org/blog/archives/001635.html
http://www.turbulence.org/blog/wordpress/?p=838
http://www.trnmag.com/Roundup/2005/TRN_Research_News_Roundup_10-24-05.html
http://research.microsoft.com/%7Eawilson/papers/Wilson%20PlayAnywhere%20UIST%202005.pdf

Surface computing demo
http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/microsoft/archives/004423.html?wbfrom=rss

PlayAnyWhere UI 
http://research.microsoft.com/%7Eawilson/TouchLight%20Oct%2004%20with%20narration%201.0Mbps.wmv

Gurindar S. Sohi
http://www.cs.wisc.edu/~sohi/sohi.html

Matt Uyttendaele
http://research.microsoft.com/users/mattu/

Photo:
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/ABPub/2006/07/18/2003135973.jpg

Photo caption:
Microsoft employee Miran Lee checks out her company's "surface computer"
demonstration at DemoFest. She's making a map of Edmonds, projected onto a
table for display, move with her hand.