JP
More video of Microsoft’s Surface Sphere multitouch display has been released, demonstrating a little better than the last video exactly what the touch-sensitive ball can do. Basic technical details have also been released, although the full specifications of the wide angle lens (that both spreads the projected image onto the diffuse ball and focuses the returned IR light of fingers touching it) are still unknown.
Check out the demo video after the cut
The usual Surface apps are present, including the photo browser, spherical version of Pong, Paint program and Globe, as well as a video browser. Perhaps more interesting, however, are the features which demonstrate how the Sphere interacts and recognizes the outside world; the demo shows the live omni-directional camera, as well as the desktop application handling the Sphere’s processing.
Microsoft still claim to have no plans to commercialize the Surface Sphere, and to be honest we’re having trouble thinking up suitable applications even if they wanted to. Nonetheless, while some are happy to discount it as “just the iPhone in a ball”, the technical engineering involved does deserve no small amount of credit.
