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Microsoft's Multitouch Coffee Table Display
longacre writes "Popular Mechanics takes the Microsoft Surface system for a hands-on video test drive. To be announced at today's D5 conference, the coffee-table-esqe device allows manipulation from multiple touch points, while infrared, WiFi and Bluetooth team up to allow wireless transfers between devices placed on top of it, such as cameras and cell phones. Expected to launch before the end of the year in the $5,000-$10,000 range, the devices might not make their way under many Christmas trees, but will find the insides of Starwood hotels, Harrah's casinos and T-Mobile shops."
http://cs.nyu.edu/~jhan/ftirsense/
There ya go.
And there was yet another that allowed you to mix music and create synthesized effects in real time by arranging various oddly-shaped prisms on the surface. I have two (large) videos of that but I don't know where they came from.
End of lesson. You may press the button.
Jeff Han might disagree.
It is just about nine months since: http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/65
But like rearing a child, we'll see the person in 5 to seven years... Or, in a month when the iPhone is released.
I find this very interesting from a marketing perspective. They are promoting this as if it was a product, and yet it isn't on sale - and even the implementations they are talking about (T-Mobile, Sheraton Hotels) are really trials with partners that won't be happening until the end of next year.
So what is this all about? The Vista and Office '07 launches haven't gone well from a marketing perspective - there has been a lot of press basically saying that Microsoft is losing its competitive edge. Couple that with the iPhone, and the fact that Apple is almost certainly going to be launching new products with multi-touch capabilities over the next year or so, and I think it is clear what is going on. Microsoft really want to improve their image in relation to Apple - they don't want Apple to be seen as the innovator and them as the company that's lost it.
Notice on the website that they have a section called "origins" giving the history of the technology within Microsoft - I think they are trying to reverse the image that they copy Apple. Now when the touch-screen iMac is launched (or whatever) Microsoft will have done a fairly good job at taking some of the shine off the launch, even though they don't have a consumer product in the area, nor will they have for some years.
Note, I am not saying that Microsoft are not serious about this as a product -- just that this news launch (about a product that doesn't exist) is all about addressing people's perceptions of the company, and trying to piss on Apple's fire a bit.
This was exciting and appeared to work much better when I saw it for the first time last year.
Check out the Jeff Han video from last year then watch the MS video.. The original is a much smoother interface.
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/65
Yeah MS added some fluff by making it interact with devices placed on top the the basic idea is not some new "Top Secret" project
If you think it's expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur. --Red Adair
And it's built from the same Carbon, Oxygen, Nitrogen, and Hydrogen that everything else is built from, too! Jeez, can't Microsoft come up with some original atoms to use???
E pluribus unum
True, but the "fluff" is exactly the point. There are always two parts to a successful project: implementation and presentation. Geeks are going to flip out over the implementation, but if it is going to be presented to the general public, it has to be in a slick package, and it has to have the bells and whistles -- the "fluff" -- that make people go "oooooohhhh". Consider the iPod, which was absolutely nothing new (as witnessed by CmdrTaco's infamous offhand comment). But Apple took an existing technology and wrapped it in a shiny case and interface, and sales exploded.
It is those little stupid things, like the soft glowing ring around a drink set on the table, or the little ripple effect when a finger hits it, or the way the pictures "explode" out of the camera when it is set down, that will make Joe Six-Pack sit up and pull out his wallet.
And honestly, you think having the Surface interact with devices set on it is "fluff"? As I said above, the little graphical flourishes that happen are definitely fluff, but the concept of merely having to set a device down on the table for them to communicate is utterly simple and intuitive. I'd say that's a huge point in Surface's favor.
StoneCypher is Full of BS
Apple is using multitouch as a gimmick to create buzz. It doesn't actually do anything useful. Nothing like some facile Apple-bashing. Watch the Apple demos to see how useful multitouch is for a cell phone. And Apple's "postage stamp"-size screen will be something I can own myself & use every day, as opposed to the MS display, which costs $5k-$10k.
Each little touch you mentioned, while contributing its own degrees of wow-factor to the package, also contributes functionality.
The glowing ring -- confirmation of an established connection. Ripple effect -- an interstitial "sandbox" to ease users into this mode of interaction. Exploding pictures -- making it clear that the photos aren't being simply triggered by the phone's contact with the surface, obviously establishing their source as the phone itself.
Sure, you could pop up a centered Windows dialog for the first, have a guided tutorial for the second, and just draw in the photos starting in the upper left for the last. But the animated flourishes actually carry information, improving the interface's functionality.
Your mind is clear / The things that you fear / Will fade with how much you / Believe what you hear