The folks over at Microsoft Research have come up with a new augmented reality concept called the Beamatron. Combining a projector and a Kinect sensor on a pan tilt moving head, it allows people to combine the physical with the virtual world. This means virtual cars can be driven in a room, bumping into real obstacles and speeding over ramps – allowing for some interesting interactions between graphics and the real world.

Technology like this could be used to bring notifications and other graphics to the attention of a user by automatically placing it within the user’s view. Imagine reading a newspaper and then seeing a notification for an incoming call or new email on the top corner of the page. That would make life pretty interesting. Check out a demo of the Beamatron in the video above.

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