Surround-See: Future Smartphones Can See their Surroundings

Mobile devices are endowed with significant sensing capabilities. However, their ability to ‘see’ their surroundings, during active use, is limited. We introduce Surround-See, a self-contained smartphone equipped with an omni-directional camera that enables peripheral vision around the device to augment daily mobile tasks. Surround-See provides mobile devices with a field-of-view collinear to the device screen. This capability facilitates novel mobile tasks such as, pointing at objects in the environment to interact with content, operating the mobile device at a physical distance and allowing the device to detect user activity, even when the user is not holding it. We describe Surround-See’s architecture, and demonstrate applications that exploit peripheral ‘seeing’ capabilities during activSurround-Seee use of a mobile device. Users confirm the value of embedding peripheral vision capabilities on mobile devices and offer insights for novel usage methods.

Video

Surround-See has recevied plenty of media attention:

NewScientist - A phone, or an all-seeing sentry at your command? - [Online]
Discovery News - A Phone That Can See Its Surroundings - [Online]

Project Publications

• 
• 
•