Out of Microsoft and University of California Berkeley comes the Pictionaire touchscreen table.  It uses integrated overhead cameras to capture physical objects and convert them into digital ones to be manipulated.  The Microft Surface-esque table is almost six feet long, begging for an intuitive collaborative experience.  Creating digital copies of “physical artifacts” couldn’t be simpler.  You place an object (say, a notebook with doodles) onto the surface, the table recognizes its presence, the overhead camera snaps a picture of it, and all you have to do is drag and drop the corner edge of the object to a new area on the table.  Viola–now you have a digital copy of the notebook that can be manipulated in a variety of ways.  You can drag the digital copy onto paper-sized whiteboards and use a marker to add annotations.  The surface can even act as a light table to create hand-drawn copies of things.  Wireless keyboards and mice are supported for text imput and image search.  Though Pictionaire remains a research project, it’s good to see Microsoft and company working towards a more practical experience with the Microsoft Surface table.

[Via New Scientist; Gizmodo]