Video: A new touch display can be used on any surface.
IT WILL either revolutionise your presentations or make 鈥渄eath by PowerPoint鈥� worse. One thing is certain: by allowing you to touch and play with light, Microsoft鈥檚 LightSpace technology will make presenting more fun.
The LightSpace prototype projects slides, documents, photographs or video onto any surface, from a table to a door. Presenters can then touch and literally pick up a virtual item from a display and carry it across the room as a spot of light in the palm of their hand.
To perform commands 鈥� 鈥減lay video鈥�, for example 鈥� you move your hand along a projected light beam that acts as the central control. Holding your hand in the right position on the menu for a few seconds activates the function.
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鈥淭he aim is to bring the kind of multi-touch interaction you get with LCD surface displays to every surface in a room,鈥� says of the Microsoft Research lab in Redmond, Washington.
On grid
LightSpace works by using projectors, motion-tracking sensors and depth-sensing cameras.
Based loosely on Kinect, Microsoft鈥檚 gaming system that tracks body movement without the need for a handheld controller, the technology is due to be demonstrated at the conference in New York City this week.
With Kinect, a device called a bathes the gamer in an infrared grid pattern whose telltale distortion lets a computer work out the distance between a camera and every pixel in the image it observes. That way, it builds a 3D image of the gamer鈥檚 movements in front of the TV set.
LightSpace uses three depth cameras to create a full 3D image of the area of the room in which a presentation is being made. Instead of looking for gaming cues such as kicks and punches, it identifies which projected media the user is interacting with.
Early stages
It鈥檚 a compelling prospect, but Microsoft stresses it is still a prototype and far from being out on the market. 鈥淲e鈥檙e still exploring the interactions enabled by this kind of technology,鈥� says co-developer Hrvoje Benko. For example, it may be most effective when accessed by multiple presenters. In tests the system has successfully tracked six people simultaneously.
Wilson says the project may yet work in concert with another Microsoft project, Skinput, in which a user-worn microprojector casts touchscreen menus on the skin, with taps on the skin recognised acoustically.
If the LightSpace technology does come to market as a presentation tool, users would need to beware of the same issues that spoil so many PowerPoint presentations, says , author of the book Lend Me Your Ears, a critique of computer-assisted slide-show presentations. He points out that an audience might struggle to concentrate in a presentation with multiple active surfaces. 鈥淚鈥檓 not against digital aids for presenters, but LightSpace sounds a massive distraction.鈥�
