Allard

Attention Harry Potter, we'll be needing some prior art.

We've been hearing rumors and reading speculation lately about what Microsoft executive J Allard has been doing. Apart from reports about a possible Zune/Xbox linkup, one source who has been accurate in the past recently cited the possibility of an Allard project reviving the Tablet PC.

We don't know if any of this is true, because there have been no official details about the recent undertakings of the exec credited with alerting Bill Gates to the Internet and leading Microsoft into the video-game business.  J -- no period, please -- is officially listed as Microsoft's "Chief Experience Officer (CXO) and Chief Technology Officer (CTO) ... responsible for the technical architecture and user experiences related to products and services of the Entertainment and Devices (E&D) division."

Apparently that includes the secret magic wands.

In a newly disclosed patent application, naming Allard and others as inventors, Microsoft seeks intellectual property protection for a concept described, literally, as a "MAGIC WAND." Although it was only made public a few days ago, the application was originally filed in November 2007 -- about a year after Nintendo launched the Wii, with its distinctive, wand-style controller. (Update: Timing of Nintendo's Wii launch has been corrected since original post.)

Several others from Microsoft are listed on the application, including Andy Wilson, one of the fathers of the Microsoft Surface computer. To get a sense for what the magic wand is about, here's the abstract.

The claimed subject matter relates to an architecture that can facilitate rich interaction with and/or management of environmental components included in an environment. The architecture can exist in whole or in part in a housing that can resemble a wand or similar object. The architecture can utilize one or more sensor from a collection of sensors to determine an orientation or gesture in connection with the wand, and can further issue an instruction to update a state of an environmental component based upon the orientation. In addition, the architecture can include an advisor component to provide contextual and/or comprehensive guidance in an intuitive manner.

The application is thick with language like that, but it boils down to a wand-like device with various built-in gizmos and sensors that can manipulate and interact with its environment, including video and holographic images, while using biometrics to connect with the user. The application uses the specific example of a wand recognizing the person holding it and displaying that person's avatar on a screen.

Among other features, the wand can communicate in "a manner similar to a cellular phone or walkie-talkie with other wands."

A related patent application, disclosed late last year, deals with various biometric technologies.

[Update: Jake Metcalf of 8bitjoystick.com says this sounds like a rumored Microsoft project known as "Newton."]

The fate of the Microsoft magic-wand project isn't known. More recently, the company appears to be focused on interacting with games using video cameras. We've asked Microsoft representatives to fill us in on the background for the magic wand patent application, and we'll update this post depending on the response. [Update: Received an official no comment.]

Thanks for the tip to patent-watcher theodp, who jokes that Microsoft may have to use the wand to get an actual patent on this one.

Stay tuned to see if it amounts to anything. In the meantime, here's one of the key diagrams from the application.