Microsoft Launches Multitouch Surface Computing

[Intarweb]

I agree that the "different but same" arguments are pointless. People buy what fits their lifestyle and what they want it to do, or do with it.

Just seems like for something to be widely adopted it needs to make something that is difficult easier or have a unique function. I am not sure how the Surface does that.. so I was wondering how people who would buy it would use it... Besides looking cool what it would replace or make better?

I can place my soda on it and bubbles spill out, and I can move them around (which would be fun and pretty cool), but besides looking neat... I could absolutely live without it.

It's taking things that humans have been doing for years back to it's origins so to speak. I remember sitting around with family and fingering through photos with someone snatching one out of my hand to look at it closer. Kids using their hands to color rather than pointing and clicking.

Right now, computer interaction is a one controller thing with a bunch of people pointing at what they want them to do (when groups are working on a project, gathering, etc.). This is now allowing multiple people to do multiple things. That's never been done like this before. What we're seeing is just the surface of this. If MS adds some basic functionality to it (email, surfing, video, etc.), drops the price, it will be a MEGA hit for MS if nobody (or any big players) is in the market yet.

 

[TheAnswer]

Another thing that looks problematic for this device is qualifying different types of input. In one of the demos, he pulling out a paintbrush do use on the painting program. It worked...but didn't show any characteristics of a paintbrush in the stroke...rather it just looked like a wider input.

So imagine you are a a restaurant...how does this thing tell selections made with your hand versus selections made with drops of sauce, dropped utensils, etc? If I've finished my meal and am looking at the dessert menu and my date's fork slips and comes sliding across my menu...I've just ordered half the desert menu.

It just doesn't seem very practical for that application. If the guest needs some sort of stylus or identifier (like the domino tag shown in the painting demo) to order...then it's just a small step above ordering from a PDA or from those old touch screen terminals they used to have at my local Taco Bell (before they pulled them out because people found them too difficult to order from).

One cool application would be in cafes where you have different games available and play with people on other tables or in other cafes around the world (which I think I saw in another MS video a half year ago).

 

[rdrr]

It is going to be interesting to see all the patent lawsuits in the near future... I am not talking about MT either. The issue is the gestures that make up the device. The pinch, rotate, blah, blah, blah, I have used all these on my fingerworks keyboard. Apple bought the technology, and MS is trying to do another early `80's move.

 

[bankshot]

Wow. I don't care if this is coming from the evil, hated MS. That is some seriously cool technology. Very nice job. Can't wait to see Apple's response, and especially can't wait for it to become common in the home (5, 10 years maybe?).

 

[welephants]

It's taking things that humans have been doing for years back to it's origins so to speak. I remember sitting around with family and fingering through photos with someone snatching one out of my hand to look at it closer. Kids using their hands to color rather than pointing and clicking.

Right now, computer interaction is a one controller thing with a bunch of people pointing at what they want them to do (when groups are working on a project, gathering, etc.). This is now allowing multiple people to do multiple things. That's never been done like this before. What we're seeing is just the surface of this. If MS adds some basic functionality to it (email, surfing, video, etc.), drops the price, it will be a MEGA hit for MS if nobody (or any big players) is in the market yet.

That makes sense. I was thinking of it as a PC replacement, but that's not really what it is.. more of a digital hub.

I think this technology has a bright future. Allowing people to interact together with a device is what current technology has been missing. Would be very cool if you could lay a "digital frame" on the table and an image would just upload to it and then you could pass it around. Download a sales presentation to it with video and text elements. See the nutrition facts for the hamburger you are eating.

Alright, I am excited now

 

[marcelo002]

I'll have to apologize in advance, because this has the makings of a longish post.

First off, I'll admit I'm impressed with Surface (Microsoft Surface, the Surface?). No, they didnt invent the multitouch display concept, but they did do two things which makes this thing a big deal. First, they introduced the interaction of objects placed upon the table. Second and most important, they are the first to commercialize the multi-touch concept ( ok, second after the iPhone, but we can all agree that both products serve very different needs and demographics).

However, I'm a little confused as to how many buyers Microsoft will have for Surface. Their press release states that it will soon (Winter of this year) be available in "restaurants, hotels, retail and public entertainment venues". Given the price, it would be very expensive for restaurants to replace every table with a Surface. I do see a good use in upscale bars, where there are not that many tables, and it would give them more reason to charge $25 for a martini. Surface would be useless in hotels, except as a gimmick, or, once again, in an upscale bar in a fancy hotel. Retail has some possibilities, in fancy jewelry or electronics stores (I can see Sony's stores having a few). Entertainment venues I guess would mean casinos, and it would be interesting to have surface built in to some casino tables. There are already some all-electronic poker tables present in some casinos.

All in all, Surface brings a lot of interesting and very cool-worthy concepts, but its practicality is limited. Microsoft knows this, and thats why they are targeting restaurants and such as its demographics and not consumers. Despite this, I keep reading comments about "I would never buy one" or "iPhone is better" or "way too expensive". Most of these negative comments are probably there because its a MS product and we mac faithful are basically trained to hate MS products. However, Surface will never be a competition to Apple, even if Apple releases the next iMac with a multitouch display (although I'm sure microsoft is already working on a consumer version of surface, and then we can all hate that).

 

[will0407]

So imagine you are a a restaurant...how does this thing tell selections made with your hand versus selections made with drops of sauce, dropped utensils, etc? If I've finished my meal and am looking at the dessert menu and my date's fork slips and comes sliding across my menu...I've just ordered half the desert menu.

Firstly, it must surely have a lock function, like an ipod has a hold button.

Secondly, I've read a lot of people's comments on here slating this, but this wasn't designed for home use, so why are people saying Oh, I need en extra $10k of expendable income amongst other things, or, i'd rather just pay $600 for a touch screen iphone.

I'm a massive mac fan, and slate microsoft at every opportunity I get, but I genuinely think this is an extremely clever idea. Sure, apple used touch screen first, but I think microsoft have utilised it in a different way.

 

[Ubuntu]

WHY THE HELL IS ANY PHONE THAT COMPANIES RELEASE AFTER JANUARY 2007 AN iPHONE RIPOFF???

I am so sick and tired of hearing that. "OMG, it's a touch screen. iPhone ripoff!!!!" "It makes a phone call, iPhone ripoff!!!" "I can surf the web on it. iPhone ripoff!"

I'm guessing since this makes phone calls too, it's an iPhone ripoff?

Apple certainly wasn't the first company to come out with a phone, and they definitely won't be the last. Stop calling everything else an iPhone ripoff BECAUSE IT ISN'T.

Amen. It's getting annoying.

 

[jayducharme]

Photos from a digital camera "spill" out on the surface and then you can drag the photos to a phone where they are magically uploaded... is that it? Thing is BIG. Won't go over to well for those screaming for Apple to bring back the 12"MBP...

I haven't made it through the nearly 400 postings on this topic, but if you haven't already -- take a look at what Microsoft posted.

<www.microsoft.com/surface>

There's a Surface shown in some living room settings, but what blew me away was the third video at that site. A group is having dinner at a restaurant. Their sitting at a Surface. They slap their credit cards onto it. The menu appears. They grab items off the menu and drag them onto their credit cards.

Maybe MS isn't necessarily concerned about getting one inside your home for now. It really is a bit bulky and a bit limited right now. But wait a few years. If these things appear at airports, hotels and restaurant and people get spoiled by the ease of the technology, wall versions will probably eventually be integrated with your television.

This is the most Apple-like thing MS has ever done.

Jay

 

[Ubuntu]

Also, how can this be an iPhone rip off? It was apparently in the making for five years...

another unoriginal product from msft.

You... you serious? Regardless of it's actual success, I'd say this is a pretty original device, especially when placed in comparison to other technological advancements. Can you label this device easily? Does it fit anywhere? Even if it does, it's much harder to do so than other devices.

 

[Gasu E.]

Microsoft has combined some newish but existing technologies in a unique and ingenious way. This is highly innovative, and MS deserves praise. From a geek standpoint this borders on incredible. The only thing keeping me from being overly excited is that it strikes me that, like many other highly original technology-based products, this has a high chance of being a commercial failure. The obvious applications are not economically compelling enough to justify the expense, and it's problematic (though certainly possible) that someone will come up with a unique new application that makes this a "must have."


The only thing I find unpleasantly MS-ish about this is the name, "MS-Surface". Once again MS has taken a common English word, and will undoubtedly market the hell out of it until the MS-product becomes a primary meaning. They will undoubtedly trademark it, and sue anyway who uses the word in a remotely similar context. Sigh. MS is buying out my vocabulary the same way they bought out most digital graphic images.

 

[TheAnswer]

Firstly, it must surely have a lock function, like an ipod has a hold button.

Wait...you mean I have to wait until my date has finished eating before I can look at the dessert menu?

 

[hagjohn]

May I ask why you are comparing something that isn't a cell phone or a phone at all, to a cell phone (iphone)? Comparing technology ok, but the 2 products are not even in the same market.

So M$ re-created the computer panels on the starship Enterprise 1701-D. Good for them, I suppose, but who's got $5-$10K to drop on a multi-touch surface in their bar, only to get beer, wine and booze spilled it and shattered in a bar fight? Or put it in their mall where it can get scratched and tagged?

Neat idea, but I'd be much more excited if it cost $500 - $1000. And, as others have pointed out, the iPhone has it and it's probably pending on the Mac lineup by the middle of next year for all we know. I mean, at the end of the day, isn't this where the computer world is heading anyhow? And, isn't the ability to drag photos to a cell phone or wherever nothing more than clever synchronization of Bluetooth and position sensors?

I dunno - Palm's new product seems much more interesting to me...

 

[VoodooDaddy]

I just want to add, Im not a "everything MS sucks, everything is an iphone ripoff" mac-zealot. That table is cool, no question about it. But there are alot of cool gadgets out there that will never see practical use because of their price tag. And this is one of them.

 

[slffl]

I think people are giving WAY too much credit to Microsoft for this. To me it looks like they bought this technology from the one guy (forget his name) who also has his own company in which he designs systems like this for the military and business.

It's like what Google did with Google Earth.

Ya it's cool, but do you really think it was 'Bills Vision'? I saw videos of this years ago, doing it the same way. Now if someone can to the same thing without all the cameras and crap below it, that will be something to get excited about.

 

[saurus]

Invention?

Microsoft invent? Whatever...

For anyone really curious about where this technology came from and what it could do for the real world, visit this website...

http://cs.nyu.edu/~jhan/ftirtouch/

Kudo's for making it a questionably marketable product, and figuring out how to integrate cameras and phones into this (how can it be so hard to sense the card - we already have the ability to recharge batteries without wires), but I don't plan on putting cameras all over my room to be able to do this!

 

[mrpiddly]

This is not inovative at all, Jeff Han has been doing it for a while. This is a larger version of his screen but he has other older ones. I think that he should sue microsoft.

http://www.perceptivepixel.com/


I only wish that apple would hire jeff han.

 

[hagjohn]

Put it on a tilt base and feed in your video signal and it would become an even cooler product.

It would make a sweet coffee table.

 

[s10]

As it is now it's a stunning presentation tool to impress your clients with... as long as the novelty of it remains interesting.

But as a work tool it's rather useless (at the moment?)
Your fingers are to big to be tools, so you need tools and menus.. huge ones if you want to use your fingers.. or you use a pointing device to be precise... If it recognises a pencil as such, and scissors....

 

[Intarweb]

Microsoft invent? Whatever...

Scratches head at an Apple fan making this comment. The device that saved Apple, iPod, is one of the biggest rape jobs that has ever been seen.....

 

[Intarweb]

...but I don't plan on putting cameras all over my room to be able to do this!

 

[dernhelm]

Bill Gates demoed this live at the University of Waterloo over a year ago.

Of course! But they had to announce something before apple starts shipping the iPhone. So they gave it a cool name, and trotted out something that won't really work well enough to sell to anyone until late 2008 (if not 2009). They might get something for one customer (or so) out late 2007 so they can meet their stated "winter" dates, but it won't be mass marketable for a long long time.

Still it was a cool demo, almost a cool as Jeff Hans'.

 

[kontheur]

 

[gaelan]

M$ $urface

Oh, I see what you did there...very clever.

 

[sananda]

i don't know what all the fuss is about; it's just an overpriced coffee table. i'm kidding. it's really cool. i love all the multitouch stuff that's about now. why are people saying that microsoft have bought jeff han's system? is there any evidence for this? isn't it that there are and have been many people working concurrently on multitouch for many many years.

anyway, i'm looking forward to seeing how multitouch develops.