Patent ID: 8154524

Claim:
A system that facilitates enhancing interactive surface technologies for data manipulation, comprising: one or more processors; memory communicatively coupled to the one or more processors; a surface detection component stored in the memory and executable by the one or more processors that detects a surface input on a surface, and enables a physical interaction between the detected surface input and a portion of displayed data on the surface; a proxy object component stored in the memory and executable by the one or more processors that generates a proxy object for the detected surface input, the surface input being incorporated into a physics simulation; a particle proxy component stored in the memory and executable by the one or more processors that models a contour shape of the surface input with a plurality of proxy objects, a contour of the plurality of proxy objects comprising a particle proxy; and a physics engine stored in the memory and executable on the one or more processors that integrates a portion of Newtonian physics into the physical interaction between the detected surface input and the portion of displayed data to model a quantity associated with the portion of displayed data, the quantity comprising a force, a mass, a velocity, or a friction.