Google researching new method to ‘project’ smartphone display onto any screen
Even with their Chromecast streaming dongle, Google isn’t quite done exploring the world of shared screens. Their latest development, dubbed Open Project, promises to allow any smartphone to “project” its screen to any display with a minimum of hassle and no special hardware.
The basic setup: a QR code is called up on the display you wish to share your screen with. That code is read by the smartphone’s camera, which can then be used to position and size the projection on the secondary display. Once confirmed, a touch-enabled screen projection will pop up. Yes, you read that right. If the secondary display supports touch input, it can be used to control whatever is being shown on the smartphone’s screen.
The concept is still in the developmental stages, but it appears to do everything it promises based on a YouTube video demonstrating the technology. Open Project utilizes a special web server and requires no additional pairing or gizmos other than the initial QR code. Exactly how Google would implement the service on a larger scale is unknown, but it has the makings of something possibly quite useful. We’ll have to wait and see.