The innovative work that Microsoft Research have been undertaking with Surface continues with technology that they have dubbed “SecondLight”.
PcMag is carrying a story that explains how some of this works;
The experimental SecondLight technology adds a second dimension to Surface, allowing users to slide “magic lenses” over the display to provide a second surface that can be linked to the first. In one example, Microsoft researchers projected a picture of a car on the Surface display. But add separate, portable pieces of glass that can be moved across the display, and presto! the glasses are transformed into “X-ray specs” allowing a wireframe model to be viewed.
Microsoft Surface has a lot of potential in several scenarios, commercial and consumer. There is no doubt that we will see a lot of evolution in HCI technology over the coming few years, and Surface is one of the technologies that is leading the way in that area at the moment.