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May 30 / Ozymandias

Microsoft Surface

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Microsoft just announced some cool new technology – basically a table-sized, multi-touch input display with intuitive UI. The videos are great – I love how the table reacts when drinks are placed on it. And I’m already imagining the interesting social/trivia games you could create in a bar – imagine SceneIt! with a team at every table.

No idea how much it costs, but I’d guess this it likely targeted at “professional” applications like bar surfaces or hotel guides… at least for now. But five or ten years from now? I may be looking at my new coffee table (and music/media interface!)

[YouTube:IqVNAnuQQyg]

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  3. Wired on Microsoft’s Challenge for Windows Phone 7: Wooing Developers
  4. Moving on from Microsoft

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  • vittala

    Yea, I was checking out the website for this earlier today, pretty amazing technology.

    The display technology seems to be making a lot of advances as of late. Now if they can get the price right for consumers?

  • Anonymous

    Just like any technology, it’ll get there eventually… hopefully sooner rather than later.

  • united devil

    how cool would one of those be on a drunken night at the pub! i hope they dont charge people to use them although i wont be surprised if they do.

  • http://thebigman87.com thebigman87

    Well according to BBC News…

    "With a 30-inch screen, Surface will initially sell for between $5,000 and $10,000 (£2,525-£5,050)"

    It looks very good but at the moment I don’t think it’s been tweaked, well at least not very well for actual home use. I’d struggle to find it anything but annoying.

  • http://informationhigh.net InformationHigh

    Yeah the popular mechanics video also mentions the $5,000-$10,000 price: http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/industry/4217348.html

    Silverlight was also just launched as well wasn’t it? It looks pretty promising:

    http://www.microsoft.com/silverlight/default.aspx

  • Anonymous

    Now that is one hell of an invention. Do you happen to know if what we are watching on the demostrations over its minisite is just conceptual demonstration or is actually finished product? (I mean, the possibilities look cool but, is that already done job or what its expected to be once refined?). I must admit the "object recognition" system left myself with my mouth wide open.

    At the same time, although this model seems far more advanced (hell, I can’t get the object recognition out of my mind), in essence seems too similar to Apple’s Multi Touch Screen concept (link of video demonstration, delete if against the site policy: http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&ct=res&cd=1&url=http%3A%2F%2Fvideo.google.com%2Fvideoplay%3Fdocid%3D6379146923853181774&ei=gQpeRqzdKqiGQN6FyJwF&usg=AFrqEzdoHkOfP7VKO-INRODrLFbbjJAuRg&sig2=_zr8G9T7KEdMdTq2FLDiRg )

  • http://thebigman87.com thebigman87

    Yea well ever since Touch Screen happened this seemed a natural evolution, the good thing about it is that it seems very simplistic but again this being useful anytime soon? I doubt it.

  • http://www.myspace.com/miketo Fiction N Lies

    Wow.  I saw this on the news tonight and I was blown away.  I would want one of these, but any word if you can switch it to use a stylus for us artists?

  • Imaginedbug

    Wacom’s tablets don’t require batteries in the pens or mice, yet every pen is identified separately (I love my Cintiq lol). That’s the way those tables should ID objects also, and the size of the circle around the object could be pressure-based. Get rid of those annoying and restricting infrared camera’s to "see" what’s on the table and this thing will become far more interesting.

    Who needs to see where they put their drink and play with the bubbles in their coke eminating from the base of the glass on the table? Those kinds of gadget-y features make it too much like the Wii; fun for a while, then ignored.

  • http://technowledgy.spaces.live.com BackScatter

    Wow – Is that ever cool.  An elegant mesh of hardware and software they have there.

    How’s that for a dream job?  Working in a lab where you’re encouraged to take the tech gadgetry you can imagine and get funding to make them a reality.  Ranks right up there with working on the Xbox Team, I’d imagine.  ;-)

  • Amazing Patel

    Time to buy shares in Windex!

  • …

    m$ needs to fix rings of death first. FACT.

    m$ needs to fix disc scratch issues when you aren’t even moving the console. FACT.

  • Anonymous

    That’s better – I deleted the original comment because it repeated itself. Consider yourself heard. :)

  • Epsilon

    That’s pretty neat.

    Looked like downtown Seattle when that guy was looking over directions. But I don’t remember there ever being a "Financial District."

  • http://www.testtrack4.com Stuart P. Bentley

    Okay, that’s it. 2007 is officially the year life turned into a sci-fi movie.

  • http://live.xbox.com/member/GhettoLevis GhettoLevis

    Re: Rings of Death, Scratchdiscs: Sometimes I get the feeling I’m the only person in the world who had only working 360s… (I had one from the company I used to work for, another one from another company, and now I bought my own). All working, no rings, no scratches.

    Anyway, back to the subject: I see at least one serious flaw in the concept of these tables, namely…

    I don’t have one yet. Seriously, that’s annoying.