SurfaceFleet: Exploring Distributed Interactions Unbounded from Device, Application, User, and Time

Knowledge work increasingly spans multiple computing surfaces. Yet in status quo user experiences, content as well as tools, behaviors, and workflows are largely bound to the current device—running the current application, for the current user, and at the current moment in time.

SurfaceFleet is a system and toolkit that uses resilient distributed programming techniques to explore cross-device interactions that are unbounded in these four dimensions of device, application, user, and time. As a reference implementation, we describe an interface built using SurfaceFleet that employs lightweight, semi-transparent UI elements known as Applets.

Applets appear always-on-top of the operating system, application windows, and (conceptually) above the device itself. But all connections and synchronized data are virtualized and made resilient through the cloud.

For example, a sharing Applet known as a Portfolio allows a user to drag and drop unbound Interaction Promises into a document. Such promises can then be fulfilled with content asynchronously, at a later time (or multiple times), from another device, and by the same or a different user.

[MobileComputing]

Looks promising, but not quite transparent to end-users. How does it synchronise dependencies of the applications and directory structure of the workspace? And how would it function cross-platform between desktop and mobile with different OS? Lastly, since the widgets are largely primitives, how does access right work across devices (of different users)?

[scientist]

Is this going to be integrated only across surface devices or is it going to be a part of a larger windows 10 update?

[AdamsTaiwan]

Make the a Garage project so we can actually use. I'm afraid it will never get out.

[livinginharmony]

It's called HarmonyOS in 2019, an actual evolving product by Huawei not Microsoft with Windows today! LOL Application agnostic across OSes, HarmonyOS (HarmonyOS NEXT), OpenHarmony and Oniro OS without endless "Cloud" with localised on-device data of distributed DSoftBus. Microsoft is stuck in similar watered down concept in R&D from 2020. They had big plans for 2020 cancelled Windows Core OS in 2018