Patent ID: 8584029

Claim:
A surface computer, comprising: an interactive display surface configured to: display visual output, detect placement of a physical document on the interactive display surface; and optically scan the physical document to obtain encoded data, wherein the physical document possesses the encoded data, and wherein the encoded data includes data other than data directly identifying the physical document; and a computer-readable storage medium storing program instructions executable to implement one or more software applications; wherein in response to the interactive display surface optically scanning the physical document, the surface computer is configured to: determine, based on the encoded data, a document type from a plurality of document types; and based on the encoded data and the document type, identify, from a plurality of software applications, a software application capable of functioning in concert with the encoded data, wherein the software application comprises a plurality of application data items; and wherein, in response to the identifying, the interactive display surface is further configured to: display a user interface for the software application; receive user input via a portion of the physical document; visibly distinguish, based on the user input and software application, the portion of the physical document at a position physically matching the portion of the physical document that received the user input; select a first application data item of the plurality of application data items based on a relationship between the first application data item and the portion of the physical document; and display the first application data item.