Hitachi Invents the 'Shadow' User InterfaceHitachi Invents the 'Shadow' User Interface

The Lab Rat is accustomed to hiding in the shadows, but not reporting on them. You won't believe what the Big Cheese has seen inside Hitachi's Ubiquitous Platform Group labs. Researchers there have successfully built a prototype display table (a table with a computer monitor built in) that uses a shadow as the user interface.

The prototype uses technology developed by the company's Human Interaction Laboratory that reacts to shadows cast upon the table. The display itself is a Hitachi high-def LCD projector, the CP-X328J, which projects the equivalent of a 42-inch screen onto the table.

The Whiskered One overheard them calling it the Silhouette Counter and hatching plans to start selling the display as a commercial product as early as Q2 next year.