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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."
The pool fencing around my patio is 10mm thick. The floor of the Auckland tower has glass 25mm thick. So how thick is thick? A pretty pointless claim if you ask me. And three years? In Internet terms it may as well be 30 years. A stupid press release all round.
The vast majority of research Microsoft does is never released, and never intended to release. The media gets the reports on it wrong and claims "Microsoft will release yadda-yadda-yadda", when research projects are almost always just that.
The IP produced from the research projects is licensed to partner manufacturers to turn into products, which is why there's usually such a lag (or why tech seems to just disappear). Courier was a perfect example of that. See the new Libretto laptop?
You need to pay attention to WHO is announcing inside of Microsoft. Microsoft Research is not about products.
(Posted anonymously to preserve some moderation and because I'm not 100% sure what I should or should not be posting in this regard ...)