Microsoft 10,000 Eureka Moments and Counting

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office recently awarded Microsoft Corp.
its 10,000th U.S. patent. The invention, U.S. Patent No. 7,479,950,
applies to surface computing technology and outlines how users can
place real objects — anything from cell phones to their own fingers —
on the computer's tablelike display and the computer will
automatically identify the objects and track their position,
orientation and motion. This allows the objects to be associated with
data or media, like a specific collection of music or photos.

Curtis Wong, one of four co-inventors of the patent from Microsoft
Research, explains that there are myriad uses for the patented
technology in conjunction with Microsoft Surface computers or other
touch-screen applications. For example, a group of photos from a
particular vacation could be associated with a souvenir from the trip.
Placing the souvenir on a Microsoft Surface computer might initiate a
slide show. Rotating the souvenir accelerates or slows the playback
speed. Placing it on another area of the screen would "spill" the
photos onto the Surface display, allowing the user to edit, delete or
add photos to that collection with simple gestures.

Or a user might choose to associate a collection of party music with a
matchbox from a favorite music club. Placing the matchbox on Microsoft
Surface would cause all the album covers within that party mix to jump
out, so the user can rearrange the playlist. From there, she could
place the matchbox on a play button to hear the music, and then rotate
the matchbox to scroll through the other albums. She could also add
music to that playlist by touching related albums and "flicking" them
into the matchbox.