The Sony Future Lab is a research and development department responsible for bringing crazy ideas to the prototype stage. This week, it showcased an amazing product at the SXSW conference in Austin: a device that can turn any flat surface into a touch-sensitive display.
This “interactive tabletop” concept uses depth sensors and motion tracking technology to detect objects placed on the surface, and it can even make storybooks come to life. In 2012, inventor and tech expert Bastian Broecker created an augmented reality coffee table using the PlayStation Eye camera and Microsoft Kinect sensor, and Sony’s project is like a fully realized version of that product.
Through programming design, Sony has made its prototype capable of recognizing the classic work “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” by British author Lewis Carroll. When the company’s representative opens the book, animations appear on the pages, and you can pull them off the page to interact with nearby physical objects, such as teacups and playing cards. The tabletop can also respond to any pressing gestures by tracking the direction of your hand, and hovering your finger over any area of the surface highlights the raster used by the projector to monitor your movements.
Industry insiders believe that while the applicability of the tabletop seems limited at the moment, this type of technology has enormous potential. It is not hard to imagine that this Sony device could be used as an educational tool, making novels or history books come alive as interactive lessons—or as a fun way to play games in any environment. More importantly, such projection devices could effectively connect people with various existing screens and the augmented reality and holographic technologies brought by projects like Microsoft HoloLens.
Sony emphasizes that the Future Lab project’s prototype is still in development, so it is unclear when this technology will enter classrooms or hit the market as a consumer product. However, such cool technology is bound to leave the lab eventually. (Source: NetEase Technology)
