Zune Buggy movie -- the depth-sensing camera

Microsoft researcher Andy Wilson got a mention in today's brief report on Microsoft's TechFest 07 but really you have to see his Zune Buggy demo to appreciate it. And you can, because there's a little movie of it on Microsoft's Channel 9 developer site.

The basic idea is that you can create a little world on a physical surface such as a table top and then drive a virtual car around it. You can either look at the virtual car projected on the table top or look at a 3D world displayed on a monitor, which provides a more conventional game-style view.

This is not, in any sense, a product, and does not imply that Microsoft will ever use it in a product. It's a demo of a research idea. And the whole idea of "surface computing" is, as Andy Wilson says, "to give everyday surfaces in your world, like table tops and walls, display and sensing capabilities."