Making Microsoft’s Surface Mobile

The Microsoft Surface is one of the greatest multi-touch devices available in marketplace today.  If you were lucky enough to attend the Olympics in Vancouver or have recently visited a WIND Mobile store, then you’ve had a chance to interact with one.  While cool, it’s hefty size and $15,000 USD price tag may deter you from purchasing one. 

What if Microsoft were to make the surface mobile providing you a more organic way of interacting with your device.  Well that offering is already being showcased.  Techfest 2010 is an event where the Microsoft Research team showcases the innovative projects they are working on. One project dubbed the “Mobile Surface” links a mobile phone to a camera and projector, letting people interact with a screen projected onto a tabletop by moving their hands in the air above it.

The video demo above showcases the possibility for users to control the volume of a music application by lifting their hands up and down over the table. Microsoft currently is not commenting when or whether this might be made into a product. The are suggesting however that mobile phones will increasingly contain their own projectors and in addition to existing built-in cameras the offering will provide a more innovative and simpler way for end users to interact with their mobile devices.