A Bagel With…

Microsoft unveiled their new touchscreen based computing platform called Microsoft Surface.   Its kind of been big news with lots of sites weighing in on the subject (see below).  Think of it as a cross between those old tabletop video game desks (like Pacman) from the 80’s-90’s and the movie “Minority Report”.

The concept is simple.  Place people around an interactive table that offers picture, music, video browsing as well as some nice mapping and contact sharing abilities and let people communicate the way we naturally do, by sight and touch.  No strange keyboards or mouse to use.  Use the best pointing and manipulation device nature has created for us, our hands.

Not going into the technology involved, though it is interesting

Their demos are still early concepts, but are using working prototype software and hardware to illistrate freindly concepts like:

• photo sharing: place your camera on the table and see the photos ’spill’ out and be able to rotate, size and move to other people’s devices.    You could select a grouping and create a slideshow too, or mail them to someone (think how computers in movies have always represented concepts like sending messages, that is the type of interface… simple)
• videos: watch previews of videos ‘placed on the table’ by clicking them.  can move them from device to device just as easily
• music: How about a virtual Jukebox at every table in a bar.  Browse the catalog of albumn art and select songs.  Simply drag the songs you want to the jukebox and they get qued up for play.  Similar to some of the advanced digital systems some bars may have, but could have dozens of interface tables, not just one.  Plus, the interface looks more natural to browse.   Its like picking up a CD, turning it over and selecting a song.. no cumbersome menus.
  Also, a nice demonstration of sharing music between Zunes.  People could place their music device on the table, and view then drag-n-drop songs bewteen devices for sharing.  Of course this will have to have some controls or the RIAA might get all bent out of shape… I mean, who ever has shared music with a friend legally.  I mean we never had casette tapes in the past for this.. [But that is another discussion]
• maps: nothing truly new here.  Just a nice interface to build a map of an area, and get directions to be downloaded to you phone.
• Contacts: this was not a big part of the latest demos, but software could be used to say pass around virual business cards and share phone information.  Imagine simply placing your phone or RFID compatible object (business card, whatever) on the table and simply ‘dragging’ the information to another person’s device.  Could pass your email, phone, business information all in a simple step.  Sure could do similar with traditional business cards.  But this concept is just scratching the surface.

Watch the Microsoft Surface videos on the main site, it is cool to see where this could go.

Their are lots of other possibilities for these new Surface Computer Platforms and other companies are developing similar technologies.  They are expensive, in the 5-10K range right now but like all things that will change.  First adopters will be mostly hotels (think Las Vegas especially), airports for business class travelers and maybe some high end bars.

An overview (including tech involved) of what it can do: here
Scoble’s weary eye on its current state…
and The computer is personal again

Interesting stuff, will be nice to see how it shapes up in a year.. and I want one for my living room!

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 30th, 2007 at 9:26 pm and is filed under Technology. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. You can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site. Your comments will appear immediately, but I reserve the right to delete innapropriate comments.