Do you want to develop niche multitouch applications for a platform that most people will never get their hands on for the foreseeable future? You're in luck. Later this month, Microsoft will be releasing its Surface SDK beyond the few companies that have been privy to it since launch to attendees of its Professional Developer Conference. I am curious to see what kind of multitouch gaming could come out of more developers having access to the kit, but the fact that you can't just go out and buy one for your living room undoubtedly puts a damper on development fever for the platform. [Cnet]

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Pioneer showed off their new Floating Vision technology at CEATEC this year. It's a system of layers: first, an LCD with built-in computer, then an array of 3D lenses, and finally the "space sensor," or virtual screen, where you can wave your fingers around and watch the 3D animations react accordingly. But the space sensor can also distinguish between and interact with different objects, like the Microsoft Surface: hold your phone under a falling object, say, and it'll appear on your phone's screen with a coupon for that item. Second video after the jump.

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It's tough to imagine the eureka moment when an engineer, equating the Microsoft Surface with a fat person with a penchant for curly fries dipped in ranch, decided to place the Surface on the Wii Balance Board. But the result, coupled with a custom-coded Surface app, creates a tilt screen of epic proportions. Pushing on one edge of the Surface works just like rotating an iPhone. And we can't wait to see the technology manifest to an insane 4-player co-op game of Monkey Ball. [Stimulant via ubergizmo]

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Well, yes, it probably could, but as yet it's only there for picking the interior colour for your new BMW and the like. So for now, this DIY coffee table with a matrix of 4,092 LEDs is what I want in my living room. Using 65 microcontrollers and four Atari 2600 joysticks, the circuit wizards at Sparkfun have loaded their LED table with four-way cooperative Pong, which actually looks like a lot of fun in action.

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MC Hammer was out of commission for a while there but he appears to be back in big way. First we saw him in a full-on parody for Monday Night Football, and now he has been spotted enjoying the Microsoft Surface at the TechCrunch 50 conference. If I were the one wearing Hammer Pants in the '80s, I would try to avoid public scenarios that invite obvious jokes—but he seems to have come to terms with his past. [JacobMullins TwitPic via Microsoft Surface Blog]

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MSNBC had an impromptu demonstration of its new Microsoft Surface table this morning, and gave political analyst Chuck Todd a chance to play with his dollies. At first, the goateed Todd moved states around, zooming, colouring and highlighting with his finger. Though he didn't really have a full handle on all the features himself, the demo was pretty much Surface as usual, until he brought out his bobbleheads.

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Touchkit, a open source (software and hardware) multitouch kit designed by NOR_/D, has been announced at a US$1580 price point, or roughly 1/8th the cost of Microsoft's Surface table. That's not to say that the TouchKit is equivalent or even necessarily a competitor to Microsoft's offering, but it is theoretically capable of many of the same flashy tricks. The system must be hooked up to a separate computer, and also requires an external projector. As you can see in the video, there's not exactly a whole lot it can do out of the box, but the open source platform can be tweaked by anyone with a little knowledge of C++. Check out the gallery of the hardware and potential installations are their site. [Gizmag]

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Unlike many gadgets, the Microsoft Surface Table isn't something that a lot of consumers get a chance to unbox for themselves. That doesn't mean you shouldn't get to enjoy seeing some lucky Aussies from the Amnesia Blog pulling the first Surface in the land down under out of its crate. Follow me past the jump for a nice dose of living vicariously through others.

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Microsoft's Surface Sphere operates a lot like the original Surface, utilising a projector surrounded by a ring of IR cameras, which is then covered by a semi-opaque globe. The IR cameras detect when the beams are being blocked, and transmits it as contact. Using it, I found there are still a few early glitches, but this is an amazing piece of technology and far along for a prototype.

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The Seattle PI has the first look at Microsoft's multi-touch Surface Sphere--simply Sphere--that we've known would debut this week. It's more advanced than Surface, since it has to use algorithms to round images, and uses an infrared system to detect hands and objects touching it. It plays omnidirectional video and what has to be the craziest rendition of Pong ever. The video shows a lot of amazing potential, but incredulously, it's just an ooh-and-ah project right now, with no commercial plans--it's just supposed to relay their vision of everything as a potential Surface. We're convinced, now make it happen. [Seattle PI]

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