Windows Phone devices have become appealing with Windows Phone 8.1 already rolling out. More features will come and one of which is 3D face scanning.

Microsoft Research is considering the possibility of 3D face scanning through the use of Windows Phone employing 3D construction calling it "Skynet UI" with researchers / designers, Jiawei Gu, Richard Cai and Zhiwei Li.

The group is checking 3D construction to harness tech to portable devices, enhance user experience and lower the gap between 3D construction and common consumers with systems and algorithms.

3D Reconstruction is a tool that empowers consumers to transform physical objects into 3D HD models with the RGB camera capturing the mobile device and also support 3D printing. The interaction design has this challenge of how to offer visual guidance and feedback to users on capturing the whole surface of the target object via natural and intuitive ways.

Initially, the team maps out the application workflow to have systematic backend and UI frontend. By using augmented reality (AR), the sphere could blend in around and cover the object. The dynamic visual guidance and feeback on skynet said the user can cover all surface segments on the sphere and the capture result could produce 3D models that support scenarios such as augmented reality furniture, space arrangement and object search and recognition.

Such technology could be an awesome part of Windows Phone in the future. Microsoft recently delighted many of the tech industry audience of its big announcements at the company's Build Conference 2014 early this month with the promise of bringing Start Menu back with a free Windows 8.1 update. This has proved the Redmond software firm listened to its customers and ignored Windows cultists who called Start Menu whiners "stupid."

It also decided to make Windows free for OEMs to let them have more freedom to produce devices for its OS. Redmond also envisioned to eliminate the gap between Windows and other operating systems by making it easy to develop apps that will run across many platforms.

Microsoft plans are good as it shows the firm realizing it needs to be more aggressive to compete for customers. With big plans and Microsoft Research incessantly designing and innovating, Redmond somehow would likely please tech fanatics who are keen to see strong competition.