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Sphere is an interactive spherical display prototype that uses custom optics hardware as well as computer vision and graphics software to enable interaction on a spherical surface. 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. For more information, please visit http://research.microsoft.com/~benko/projects/sphere/