This article was published on March 14, 2012

Microsoft shows off some gooey NUI goodness on the Surface 2


Microsoft shows off some gooey NUI goodness on the Surface 2

Well, we love this. I don’t know if you are a space junkie (if not, try this, it will help), but if you cannot vibe with the following clip, please check in your nerd badge on your way out.

To refresh your memory, Microsoft used to build a product called the Surface. It was essentially a table, with a large, flat, multitouch display. It theoretically went commercial, but in the end stayed more novelty than applicable product.

It’s coming successor, which you can now order, the Surface 2, has the potential to take large, multitouch displays out of the lab, and into the world. However, while corporations are working to make such activity commercially viable, developers are having a field day with the technology itself.

Enter, ahem, Dr. Dave, a Softie in the UK. He’s helped to build something called ‘NUIverse,’ a riff on the term NUI (Natural User Interface), and ‘universe.’ Guess what it does. Yes, it’s an app, essentially, for the Surface 2 that let’s you scoot about the universe in both time and space, from any perspective, fixed or otherwise. It’s stunning. The demo (embedded below), starts slowly, so give it a few minutes. By the end, you may want to winch up your lower mouth.

I’ve played with a first generation Surface. Not a bad device, I must say, for its time. The Surface 2 sounded great on paper, but I was worried that it would suffer from app drought. I suppose not. Let’s hope they release this program for use in planetariums, right?

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