The strange spherical Microsoft PC in action

The strange spherical Microsoft PC in action
It resembles a crystal ball … but this is a prototype computer designed by researchers at Microsoft Research. Consisting of a touchscreen, Sphere is pilot with the hands.

Microsft spherical pc

Those who say that nothing ever comes out of research labs and development for Microsoft to be their own expense. At the 2008 edition of DemoFest (1), researchers at Microsoft Research unveiled yesterday in Redmond a prototype surprising: a computer consists of a touch screen-shaped ball which pilot with the hands.

Known as Sphere, this computer unclassifiable is approximately 60 cm in diameter. With infrared sensors, it reacts with hands or fingers and simultaneously displays images on its surface. A specific algorithm is implemented to transform images planes in spherical images projected from the center of the device on all or part of its surface. The machine also includes a Webcam panoramic which allows him to see around him and possibly see what he sees.

Spectacular Applications
A video put online by Todd Bishop, a journalist with the Seattle Post-Intelligencer on his blog devoted to Microsoft and also found on YouTube shows several scenarios use quite spectacular. It sees Hrjove Bendo, the researcher who heads the project at Microsoft Sphere, scroll and resize photos with great ease (one imagines willingly Sphere for free service in a shopping mall to develop its digital photographs for example).
The spherical shape of the object is an ideal interface to apprehend the geography of the Earth. An application developed by Microsoft and helps transform the Sphere in interactive map that displays lit areas and those dives in the dark and can be rotated 360 ° in a snap.
A prototype commercially oriented
The Sphere can also be used to display videos and presentations seen by several people gathered around the ball. One of the strengths of the object is that it can be manipulated by several individuals at once, placed around the device (a person sorts of photos and send some to another that scales for example).
The games can obviously benefit from this new interface. Hrjove Benko shows, for example, an adaptation of the game Pong where the puck looks like a particle that bounces off the hands of players.
With Sphere, Microsoft declined the concept of tactile interface implemented on its tables Surface. In May 2007, they were purchased by the operator from AT & T (10 000 dollars according to Steve Ballmer) who team shops to help clients choose their phone.
For the moment, Sphere is still a prototype but Microsoft expects to eventually make a commercial product. The interfaces are tactile, it seems, not finish each other in our daily lives.
(1) DemoFest is an event held annually in Redmond, the headquarters of the publisher, where researchers at Microsoft Research show their work to scientists and American students picked.