The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office recently awarded Microsoft Corp. its 10,000th U.S. patent. The invention, U.S. Patent No. 7,479,950, applies to surface computing technology and outlines how users can place real objects — anything from cell phones to their own fingers — on the computer’s tablelike display and the computer will automatically identify the objects and track their position, orientation and motion. This allows the objects to be associated with data or media, like a specific collection of music or photos.

Curtis Wong, one of four co-inventors of the patent from Microsoft Research, explains that there are myriad uses for the patented technology in conjunction with Microsoft Surface computers or other touch-screen applications. For example, a group of photos from a particular vacation could be associated with a souvenir from the trip. Placing the souvenir on a Microsoft Surface computer might initiate a slide show. Rotating the souvenir accelerates or slows the playback speed. Placing it on another area of the screen would “spill” the photos onto the Surface display, allowing the user to edit, delete or add photos to that collection with simple gestures.

Or a user might choose to associate a collection of party music with a matchbox from a favorite music club. Placing the matchbox on Microsoft Surface would cause all the album covers within that party mix to jump out, so the user can rearrange the playlist. From there, she could place the matchbox on a play button to hear the music, and then rotate the matchbox to scroll through the other albums. She could also add music to that playlist by touching related albums and “flicking” them into the matchbox.

Wong notes that objects can be used to identify individual users on a shared machine and trigger their preferences. For example, the members of a family might use unique personal objects as identifiers. When the teenage son places his keys on a surface computer, the technology recognizes them and automatically brings up sports scores, his playlist and his homework assignment. Later, when mom puts her purse on the surface, the computer can automatically bring up several predetermined items, including her daughter’s soccer game schedule and maps with driving directions to the away games.

“Surface computing gives people instant access to digital information in a new way,” says Wong. “The goal of this patent is to make the interaction between the physical and virtual worlds a little more seamless.”

Wong joined Microsoft Research in 1997 and has authored more than 45 patent applications in a variety of arenas. Last year, he and his team launched the WorldWide Telescope, a rich Web application that brings together imagery from the best ground- and space-based observatories to allow kids of all ages to explore and understand the universe with astronomers as their guides.