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A team at Sydney University wrote the Focus application, which uses cameras to interpret gestures and movements made across a table to control an onscreen computer interface.
The hardware-agnostic software runs on a device that can be assembled for less than $5000.
Sydney University PhD student Anthony Collins developed the application over the past couple of years for his thesis, in conjunction with PhD student Trent Apted and computer human-adapted interaction head Professor Judy Kay.
The team assembled a surface computer for less than $5000 using a projector, a laptop, a motion sensor called a mimiograph and of course, a table.
Mr Collins said the focus was to build useful software to access the hardware.
"We've made it hardware-independent. We're focusing on making useful software so people can actually buy these tables to do stuff with them."
The software allows groups to use a surface computer to access and share files and information stored on a computer.
These can be moved across to other computing devices.
"We can definitely see something like this in the boardroom of the future, where people need to call on documents to show them to others," he said.
"It's very general, it could be magazine editors pulling up stories to figure out what they're going to include in the magazines.
"People work in groups at school and this will enable them to work at the same table."
Microsoft has begun selling its $20,000 Surface product in a high-profile marketing campaign, and some bedazzled executives have bought before deciding how to use them.
Many early applications of the surface are for marketing.
In a different approach, the group in charge of commercialising the Fusion software will launch the device after it has developed proven applications for customers across industries.
The Smart Services co-operative research centre owns the intellectual property to the software and is working with customers to develop applications for the technology, according to Smart Services CRC chief executive Warren Bradey.
That process would be completed by the end of the year, he said.
Mr Bradey said one financial services company wanted to use the technology in its branches to manage documents for completion of insurance and home loan applications.
He said the tourism industry was looking at it as a way for people to get historical information on an area such as The Rocks, in Sydney, and download it to a smartphone.
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