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  • Microsoft unveils coffee table 'surface computer'

    Interesting concept….. .


    Microsoft unveils coffee table 'surface computer'


    Software maker will introduce a coffee-table-shaped computer that has a 30-inch display, allowing people to touch and move objects on the screen.
    May 30 2007: 8:04 AM EDT
    SEATTLE (Reuters) -- Microsoft Corp. will unveil a coffee-table-shaped "surface computer" Wednesday in a major step towards co-founder Bill Gates's view of a future where the mouse and keyboard are replaced by more natural interaction using voice, pen and touch.

    Microsoft Surface, which has a 30-inch display under a hard-plastic tabletop, allows people to touch and move objects on screen for everything from digital finger painting and jigsaw puzzles to ordering off a virtual menu in a restaurant.

    It also recognizes and interacts with devices placed on its surface, so cell phone users can easily buy ringtones or change payment plans by placing their handsets on in-store displays, or a group of people gathered round the table can check out the photos on a digital camera placed on top.

    Microsoft (Charts, Fortune 500), the world's largest software maker, said it will manufacture the machine itself and sell it initially to corporate customers, deploying the first units in November in Sheraton hotels, Harrah's casinos, T-Mobile stores, and restaurants.

    The company is selling the Surface for between $5,000 and $10,000 each, but aims to bring prices down to consumer levels in three to five years and introduce various shapes and forms.

    "We see this as a multibillion dollar category, and we envision a time when surface computing technologies will be pervasive, from tabletops and counters to the hallway mirror," Chief Executive Steve Ballmer said in a statement.

    Analysts say the first few applications only hint at what is possible.

    "The potential for the interface is huge," said Matt Rosoff, an analyst with Directions on Microsoft, an independent research firm. "Once you open it up to applications, what you can think of is limitless."

    Microsoft held demonstrations of the technology last week and Ballmer will officially introduce it at the Wall Street Journal's "D: All Things Digital" conference Wednesday.

    Microsoft shunned its usual PC manufacturing partners and decided to take control of the surface computer's hardware production using an undisclosed contract manufacturer. It will run the Windows Vista operating system.

    Better than a tablet?

    Microsoft has a mixed record with new technology. Its Zune music player has not yet become a major challenger to Apple Inc.'s (Charts, Fortune 500) iPod, but its Xbox 360, game console, which competes with Sony's (Charts) PlayStation game consoles, has enjoyed early success in the battle of next-generation game machines.

    For years Gates has championed touch-screen technology such as the tablet PC with little success, but the Surface is a totally different shape and allows for multiple users at once.

    In a demonstration, Microsoft placed a digital camera with a wireless chip on the tabletop. The Surface recognized the camera and sent its pictures to the display, allowing people around the table to sift through them, grabbing and turning pictures or making them bigger or smaller by spreading or narrowing their fingers.

    Microsoft showed in another demonstration how Deutsche Telekom (Charts) cell phone operator T-Mobile USA, one of its launch partners, could deploy the computer in its stores.

    A customer can grab a phone off the shelf, place it on the tabletop where it will recognize the device and pop up the handset's specifications and information to the screen. For a side-by-side comparison with another phone, the customer can put down a second handset next to the first phone.

    "It's drop-dead simple and people really like it, because it mimics what they do in the real world," said Pete Thompson, general manager of Microsoft's surface computing business.

    Microsoft said at launch it will deploy a virtual concierge for Harrah's Entertainment Inc.'s (Charts, Fortune 500) casinos in Las Vegas and place the surface computers in the lobbies of Starwood Hotel & Resorts Worldwide Inc.'s (Charts, Fortune 500) Sheraton hotels.

    It also signed a distribution and development agreement with slot-machine maker International Game Technology (Charts).
    Diplomacy, it's a way of saying “nice doggie”, until you find a rock!

  • #2
    Official site here
    When you own your own business you only have to work half a day. You can do anything you want with the other twelve hours.

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    • #3
      Had just watched the Popular Mechanics video before coming here. I'd be very interested in this product... mind you I thought the tech was cool when I saw the original company talk about it a year ago. Still MS has done a good job with implementation.
      Wikipedia and Google.... the needles to my tangent habit.
      ________________________________________________

      That special feeling we get in the cockles of our hearts, Or maybe below the cockles, Maybe in the sub-cockle area, Maybe in the liver, Maybe in the kidneys, Maybe even in the colon, We don't know.

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      • #4
        huge touch screen =$$$$
        but looks pretty neat
        We have enough youth - What we need is a fountain of smart!


        i7-920, 6GB DDR3-1600, HD4870X2, Dell 27" LCD

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        • #5
          any idea on price yet?
          P.S. You've been Spanked!

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          • #6
            Originally posted by schmosef View Post
            any idea on price yet?
            they are saying it will be between $5000-10000 per unit. We were probably shown the $10k unit
            Wikipedia and Google.... the needles to my tangent habit.
            ________________________________________________

            That special feeling we get in the cockles of our hearts, Or maybe below the cockles, Maybe in the sub-cockle area, Maybe in the liver, Maybe in the kidneys, Maybe even in the colon, We don't know.

            Comment


            • #7
              Originally posted by Tjalfe View Post
              huge touch screen =$$$$
              but looks pretty neat

              It's a DLP projector and a touch panel. Honestly most touch screens are normal displays with an overlay
              Wikipedia and Google.... the needles to my tangent habit.
              ________________________________________________

              That special feeling we get in the cockles of our hearts, Or maybe below the cockles, Maybe in the sub-cockle area, Maybe in the liver, Maybe in the kidneys, Maybe even in the colon, We don't know.

              Comment


              • #8
                Great BSOD when you're having breakfast.
                Chief Lemon Buyer no more Linux sucks but not as much
                Weather nut and sad git.

                My Weather Page

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                • #9
                  i've read an article now that says the device is for "commercial use" and a home version will be released in 3-5 years if the idea takes off.

                  what kind of commercial applications could exist for this? day care centers? hotels? photo labs?

                  seems lame.

                  i figure that they don't want to call it a CE product until the price is low enough to be viable in the market.
                  P.S. You've been Spanked!

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                  • #10
                    The price point isn't anywhere near where it would be for commercial use. However, just off the top of my head I can think of a half dozen uses:

                    - Hotel lobbies with information of the area

                    - home improvement centers with blueprints and catalogs and selections for projects

                    - professors with the unit in front of them and a duplicate projection displayed on the wall for the students

                    - graphic design firms with bull sessions for projects

                    - stock brokers with easy access to information (heck any big wig with info at their finger tips.. they were the first ones to go dual monitor for biz after all)

                    - chic game and drink bars (chess with shot glasses, board games, puzzles and the like)

                    - photo labs like you said

                    - and most of that I thought of while watching the video
                    Wikipedia and Google.... the needles to my tangent habit.
                    ________________________________________________

                    That special feeling we get in the cockles of our hearts, Or maybe below the cockles, Maybe in the sub-cockle area, Maybe in the liver, Maybe in the kidneys, Maybe even in the colon, We don't know.

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Cooool!

                      This reminds me of the movie "Minority Report"

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                      • #12
                        I wanna see it running Ms. Pac Man
                        "And yet, after spending 20+ years trying to evolve the user interface into something better, what's the most powerful improvement Apple was able to make? They finally put a god damned shell back in." -jwz

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                        • #13
                          Anyone else notice how they had sections of glass on the top and they use that to represent pieces of a currently playing video?
                          Wikipedia and Google.... the needles to my tangent habit.
                          ________________________________________________

                          That special feeling we get in the cockles of our hearts, Or maybe below the cockles, Maybe in the sub-cockle area, Maybe in the liver, Maybe in the kidneys, Maybe even in the colon, We don't know.

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            Excellent, one step closer to the MCP...

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                            • #15
                              Originally posted by Claymonkey View Post
                              Anyone else notice how they had sections of glass on the top and they use that to represent pieces of a currently playing video?

                              Yup.

                              .
                              Diplomacy, it's a way of saying “nice doggie”, until you find a rock!

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