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Promised Microsoft Tablet 'No Thicker Than Sheet of Glass'

Posted by timothy on from the depends-how-thick-the-glass-is dept.

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."

3 of 352 comments (clear)

  1. Microsoft borrowing ideas from Apple again? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    Parts of this concept seem awfully familiar...

    http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/06/04/26/1536212/Apples-All-Seeing-Screen

  2. Bad article, Really bad summary by Sockatume · · Score: 4, Informative

    The original article is discussing Surface's touch panel and display, which are currently a weird hodge-podge of tech, being shrunk down into a single panel which is as thin as a sheet of glass. Nothing the engineer says suggests that the whole device will be that size. Furthermore the "three year" comments are about Surface's possible consumer launch, and nothing to do with the new panel at all. PC Pro's blog dump is completely dire, read the second link.

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  3. Re:will believe when i see it by Jarik+C-Bol · · Score: 4, Informative

    Actually, I recall an article on /. a few years back talking about a new Apple patent for a monitor where every 4th pixel was a sensor. The idea at the time was that all the input could be compiled, and the entire screen was your camera, thus ending the whole 'looking away from the camera in video chat because you are looking at the screen' and a plethora of other uses. Aha, here's the article. from over 4 years ago:
    http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/06/04/26/1536212/Apples-All-Seeing-Screen

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