Video: What Happens After Touch? Microsoft Research Shows Off Natural User Interface Research

Microsoft has decided it’s time to show us their future vision for smart display technologies. Steven Bathiche, director of Microsoft’s applied sciences group (the guy responsible for Surface), shows us some new prototype tech in this demo video. He talkes about a few different technologies “after touch” and just how close Microsoft is to getting this stuff to the market.

One of the pieces of tech is a “wedge lens” which picks up hand movements above the screen, instead of requiring touch. The wedges are also used to transmit light into different sides for the right and left eye, creating an auto-stereoscopic image for glasses-free viewing.

What’s interesting about this is that it shows that Microsoft is committed to Kinect outside of gaming. With the release of the SDK coming soon, Microsoft hopes to spark a wave of creativity for the device.

[via winrumors]