Communications of the ACM
Microsoft Can Make the Walls of Your Room Display Web Pages
The SurroundWeb prototype displays Web pages on multiple projectors to display information on the walls of the room.
Credit: Network World
Microsoft researchers have developed SurroundWeb, a prototype system for displaying Web pages on multiple projectors to display information on the walls of a room. SurroundWeb is "a 3D Browser that displays webpages across multiple surfaces in a room, adapt their appearance to objects present in that room, and interact using natural user input," according to Microsoft.
The system first creates a Room Skeleton using the Kinect motion sensor, which scans the room to see what kinds of surfaces are available. SurroundWeb then learns what projection equipment is available, such as monitors or phones. The monitor shows the main presentation information, while the projector shows additional content on the walls. In addition, phones can be used for interacting with the content.
The researchers note they are sensitive to privacy concerns around scanning the room. "From mobile phones, we have learned how dangerous it is to give devices unrestricted access to sensor output," the researchers say. "Similarly, from raw video and depth streams inside a home, it is likely possible to infer economic status, health information, and other sensitive information. Therefore we do not want to expose raw sensor data to Web pages."
From Network World
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Abstracts Copyright © 2014 Information Inc., Bethesda, Maryland, USA
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