TUI

Tangible User Interface (TUI)

Imagine having a computer system that fuses the physical environment with the digital realm to enable the recognition of real world objects. In Microsoft Pixelsense (formerly known as Surface), the interactive computing surface can recognize and identify objects that are placed onto the screen.

In Microsoft Surface 1.0, light from objects are reflected to multiple infrared cameras. This allows the system to capture and react to the items placed on the screen.

 

In an advanced version of the technology (Samsung SUR40 with Microsoft PixelSense), the screen includes sensors, instead of cameras to detect what touches the screen. On this surface, you could create digital paintings with paintbrushes based on the input by the actual brushtip.

The system is also programmed to recognize sizes and shapes and to interact with embedded tags e.g. a tagged namecard placed on the screen will display the card’s information. Smartphones placed on the surfaces could trigger the system to display the images in the phone’s gallery onto the screen seamlessly.