Surface Creator Moves On To LaserTouch

Microsoft Research has already developed a replacement to the yet commercially unreleased Surface. OK, so LaserTouch is currently just a prototype with absolutely no plans to bring it to market. The system allows a user to retrofit any display to allow the use of the hand – rather than a mouse or other input device – to interact with a computer.

So it’s sort of like Surface, except without the fancy touch screen. The device is the brain child of Andy Wilson, a researcher at Microsoft Research. LaserTouch works by using infrared cameras and lasers to track how a user is touching the screen. The software then acts appropriately, and there you have a nice new touchscreen where once you only had a dirty LCD.

Wilson says the technology is “inexpensive,” but because there’re no plans to bring LaserTouch to market he has no idea what it would cost the end user.