Windows Phone Thoughts: Microsoft Research Demos Using a WP7 Phone As The Controller

"In a presentation and promotional video pulled together this week, Microsoft Research boss Craig Mundie shows how you could tilt your smartphone to control a bubbly, colorful look into your personal life on your desktop machine and how you could snap a photo and then drop the handset onto a Surface for instant transfer (perhaps a bit like HP's Touch to Share), among other gems."

Craig Mundie of Microsoft Research gives us a glimpse of where they see us headed in terms of how we interact with technology. Shown in the two videos are interactions by touch, motion via technologies such as Kinect, natural language and through mobile devices like a Windows Phone 7 phone.

It is currently possible to use a phone as an input device via apps that makes it a mouse and keyboard. What is new is that Microsoft Research took it one step further by creating a custom user interface with intuitive gesture and motion based controls that makes the use of a phone as an input device seem natural. Click the link to see the custom user interface in action.

What do you think? Is this user interface and connection between computer and phone something you want to see built into Windows 8? Would you use your phone as a mouse replacement?