A few weeks ago, Microsoft released a short video that showed how a group of students at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, Calif., were recruited to create concepts for "blades," the accessories that can connect to the Surface family of tablets. Now the school itself has uploaded its own extended video of the blade concept jam session.
The video itself is a fascinating look at how these students went about creating the concepts with their initial designs drawn on paper or on a whiteboard. These were followed up by crude mock-ups of the blades, which were presented in all shapes and sizes.
Some of the mock-ups includes a keyboard, percussion and DJ set-up, an artist tool kit, a solar panel, a cash register and a way for two people to view a video in a three dimensional space. Perhaps the most interesting concept is for a Surface blade to download an application that can be used by a kind of strip that is printed from the blade and can be used for a variety of things. Depending on the application, the strip can be worn around the wrist for an exercise monitor, or folded to become a PC mouse or made to serve as a remote control.
So far, Microsoft has yet to officially announce any plans for hardware developers to create third-party blades for the Surface tablets, but the company seems to be hinting with this art design jam that they could allow others to make their own unique accessories for the Surface soon.