  As connected devices continue to decrease in size, we explore the idea of
leveraging everyday surfaces such as tabletops and walls to augment the
wireless capabilities of devices. Specifically, we introduce Surface MIMO, a
technique that enables MIMO communication between small devices via surfaces
coated with conductive paint or covered with conductive cloth. These surfaces
act as an additional spatial path that enables MIMO capabilities without
increasing the physical size of the devices themselves. We provide an extensive
characterization of these surfaces that reveal their effect on the propagation
of EM waves. Our evaluation shows that we can enable additional spatial streams
using the conductive surface and achieve average throughput gains of 2.6-3x for
small devices. Finally, we also leverage the wideband characteristics of these
conductive surfaces to demonstrate the first Gbps surface communication system
that can directly transfer bits through the surface at up to 1.3 Gbps.
