While waiting for iPhone to hit the streets more is happening on the touch screen business. Today morning Microsoft unveiled “Surface”, a table-shaped computer that responds to touch. Until this morning, the project – almost five years in the making and code-named “Milan” – was top-secret. PopularMechanics has video and some details of these “Surface Computing” tables. The video includes an interview with Jeff Han, well known for his multitouch demos.
Microsoft’s official site for “Surface” was also launched.
Surface computing uses a blend of wireless protocols, special machine-readable tags and shape recognition to seamlessly merge the real and the virtual world. The table can be built with a variety of wireless transceivers, including Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and RFID and is designed to sync instantly with any device that touches its surface. “Surface machines will cost $5000 to $10,000 at launch and are probably first seen in public spaces like bars and restaurants and people want to expand it into other environments” states Pete Thompson, Microsoft’s general manager for surface computing. Personally I can see this type of large devices work in groups, social places, where interaction is needed, but not for personal working. Or could the working methods change from “sitting in front of a desk and typing keyboard”? Also is multi touch the one to shift the software driven industry back to hardware driven?
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