Slashdot Mirror
Promised Microsoft Tablet 'No Thicker Than Sheet of Glass'
Barence writes Microsoft will deliver a touchscreen PC that is 'no thicker than a sheet of glass' within the next three years, according to the company's principal researcher. The device will be the next generation of Microsoft's Surface project, which currently houses a touchscreen PC in a deep cabinet that uses cameras to detect hand gestures and objects placed on the screen. According to Microsoft's Bill Buxton, 'Surface will become no thicker than a sheet of glass. It's not going to have any cameras or projectors because the cameras will be embedded in the device itself.' Microsoft is developing a new screen technology to make this possible. 'The best way to think about it is like a big LCD where there's a fourth pixel in every triad. So there's red, green, and blue pixels giving you light, and a fourth pixel which is a sensor that will capture stuff,' Buxton claims in an interview with The Globe and Mail."
MS can invent what they like, if they don't ship I don't care. My point is valid, your point is a sideshow.
Yeah, yeah, is guy's a genius and did a lot of pioneering work in multi-touch. Now back to the original poster's point instead if pulling things out of context to start a flame war. Apple's been working on LCD-as-a-sensor for awhile, as has been published by Slashdot in the past. This entire story is kind of a "me too" response to the Apple one. Apple has gotten so far aged of Microsoft in the touch interface arena that, regardless of how pedigreed the scientists Microsoft keeps locked away, it's completely reasonable to ask how much influence Apple's published work has on Microsoft's research today.
E pluribus unum