Although it might not seem like it Microsoft is really along way ahead of nearly all the other major tech companies. But no one really gets to see their cool stuff because it takes place in their research centres and doesn’t always make it into consumer products. Below is a collection of videos from Microsoft Applied Sciences Group, an department that helps bring Microsoft’s ideas to life and have worked on projects such as MS Surface and Project Natal (Xbox Kinect).

Street Slide – 2010

A further implementation of a mapping service similar to Google’s Street View.

First MS Surface demo – 2003

A large multitouch surface computer with finger tracking and object recognition.

MS Surface transparent puzzle pieces – 2004

Using IR tags to track position and rotation of objects

Transparent Projection – 2004

Projecting onto water vapour.

Warp Pointer – 2005

Cursor control with a hand held device similar to the Wii remote.

Sourced from: http://www.microsoft.com/appliedsciences/