Microsoft just announced a very cool new multi-touch computing product, called Surface. At first the rumors were this would be an iPhone competitor, but it's clear now that it's much larger (30-inch display!) and more of an environmental computer device. Using the product, people can interact with information using touch, natural gestures and physical objects. So no mouse or keyboard is required. From the press release:
"Surface turns an ordinary tabletop into a vibrant, dynamic surface that provides effortless interaction with all forms of digital content through natural gestures, touch and physical objects. Beginning at the end of this year, consumers will be able to interact with Surface in hotels, retail establishments, restaurants and public entertainment venues."
It's best seen to be believed, so check out the videos on the Surface website. Here are some screenshots from those videos:
This is the kind of technology Microsoft does best - a hardware/software amalgam, but not requiring the branding and design touches that Apple is so good at. The beauty of Surface is that it will be integrated into the environment (i.e. tables), so it doesn't need to be a cool accessory for humans (like iPod, Macbook, etc). Microsoft isn't so good at accessorizing, but it definitely has the technology chops to create impressive hardware/software products like Surface and XBox.
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This is the coolest thing I've ever seen. I'm amazed!
Posted by: Emre Sokullu | May 29, 2007 10:33 PM
Yep, very slick. :)
Posted by: Josh Catone | May 29, 2007 10:48 PM
looks nifty -- i wonder how it does in sunlight...
Posted by: Brenda | May 29, 2007 11:25 PM
This is amazing! The Popular Mechanics article on this topic, by Glenn Derene, has a cool video that shows off its capabilities (via Techmeme).
Posted by: NitinK | May 29, 2007 11:40 PM
it's pretty cool, but I can't handle looking at a grubby monitor, and these things are going to get so smeared... constant cleaning with a bit of Ajax maybe? :)
Posted by: Malcolm | May 29, 2007 11:57 PM
Woooooow!!! Amazing. We are in future now :). I want to buy it. How much it costs, interesting...
Posted by: Porter | May 30, 2007 1:11 AM
Yep, MS is starting to innovate. :-)
Posted by: Ebrahim | May 30, 2007 1:40 AM
Really cool! But it looks alot like: BumpTop 3D Desktop at www.bumptop.com (also see Youtube video!) and Jeff Han at TED talks, Unveiling the genius of multi-touch interface design. Is there a link?
Posted by: Samuel | May 30, 2007 1:41 AM
Malcolm (#5), LOL -- nice Ajax reference :-)
Samuel, Josh Catone also mentioned the Jeff Han similarity. see the video:
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/65
Posted by: Richard MacManus | May 30, 2007 1:59 AM
Some features of it looks like an extension to face recognition technology of Riya.com
Posted by: Internet Evangelist | May 30, 2007 2:46 AM
Can someone verify if this is related to the multi touch interface presented in 2005 TED conference?
Posted by: Giancarlo Angulo | May 30, 2007 3:07 AM
This is an amazing leap forward in computing. Regardless of whether it takes five years to get into the home, it's going to eventually make it there.
The killer application, as always, is porn. Can you imagine the myriad of uses?
http://www.yald.com/microsoft-surface-porn
Posted by: Patrick Grote | May 30, 2007 5:11 AM
And we can see Han's / Microsoft's technology having other, more public uses; such as the City Wall project in Helsinki.
After Han's presentation at TED, many people speculated that the new Mac OS might try to incorporate touch technology (mac rumors site includes studio demo of the technology presented at TED). Any chance Microsoft's just looking to jump the gun?
Posted by: marc c santos | May 30, 2007 6:40 AM
Amazing promise! But how do I go from needing a Masters of .DLLs and three hours to hooking up my cellphone with XP to just putting it on the table?
It's a really simple and powerful interface. I want one for my desk, whiteboard, notepad, cellphone nah, I'll use the iPhone for that ;)
Posted by: Fredrik | May 30, 2007 9:54 AM
A similar product was demo-ed at TED a few years back. The video is on their site. Is MS really innovating or just stealing another product concept? Also, Human Factors research suggest that for this mutli touch interaction to work, a larger screen size is required so transferring this to a screen for a phone will be difficult.
Posted by: john | May 30, 2007 10:13 AM
amazing. simply amazing.
Posted by: joefort | May 30, 2007 5:38 PM
Isn't this a bit like this: http://cs.nyu.edu/~jhan/ftirtouch/ ? It's nothing new, and I'm not a Microsoft customer, but I encourage multi-touch developments, as they are frickin cool.
Posted by: Erik Mallinson | June 3, 2007 7:00 PM