Microsoft Unveils New Surface Computer

Associated Press (excerpt) ^ | May 30, 2007

[HAL9000]

Excerpt -

Microsoft Corp. has taken the wraps off "Surface," a coffee-table shaped computer that responds to touch and to special bar codes attached to everyday objects.

The machines, which Microsoft planned to debut Wednesday at a technology conference in Carlsbad, Calif., are set to arrive in November in T-Mobile USA stores and properties owned by Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc. and Harrah's Entertainment Inc.

Surface is essentially a Windows Vista PC tucked inside a shiny black table base, topped with a 30-inch touchscreen in a clear acrylic frame. Five cameras that can sense nearby objects are mounted beneath the screen. Users can interact with the machine by touching or dragging their fingertips and objects such as paintbrushes across the screen, or by setting real-world items tagged with special bar-code labels on top of it.

~ snip ~

[pepsi_junkie]

Imagine you have a book, you liked it, you heard from somewhere it’s part of a series, take the book to the bookstore, put it on the thing it scans the barcode then tells you about other books in the series, gives you the titles and tell you if they’re in stock and if so where they can be found.

Yes, that could happen. But that could be done today with a bar code scanner and a PC. The only thing (other than small embedded devices) that I can come up with as an app would be a chart table for the navy. You could put up digital nautical charts (which you can do today on digitial chart tables) but with this you could draw up mission plans and stuff in a very natural drawing way like you would with paper charts. I'm there are other applications, they just strike me as sort of niche.

[birddog]

I’m with you, I think it is pretty nifty. I’m thinking how it could be used at work as an electronic desk. It would make a neat docking station for a laptop, MP3 player, phone, etc....

[smith288]

Seeing the demo got me really excited about the potential for such technology.

Sure, the idea has been there for a while but this reall steps up game a bit.

It can be like a command center coffee table. Here is just a few things I can think up:

Remote - has pages of your channels in thumbails and you can select what you want based on what you see

Games - Think your coat closet but minus the games falling on you when you are trying to get the game that under the rest

Conferencing - Communicate with friends, family or business partners sharing media and other information

House controls - Bring the automated house to a new level by seeing temperature, security cameras and grocery status/list making

Media Library - view/listen your digital media

Dashboard - when not using it, you could have various entertaining graphical representations or informational displays up. I can think of RSS feeds, current outside temp, upcoming events or schedule...

Sure, the technology has been out there but nobody has really put together a useful application that appeals to the general mass. MS did some really fine work with how it interacts with objects.

[discostu]

It’s funny because it’s true. Do you know how many projects Melinda piloted between when she first met Bill and when she became Mrs Dos? Bob. And Melinda was pretty cute, being a geek myself I’ve got a pretty good theory how that conversation went.

[discostu]

But barcode scanners are kind of intimidating to non-technical people. Putting your book on a counter is easy, anybody can do that.

[Incorrigible]

It was a small company back in those days...