Today at the Wall Street Journal’s D: All Things Digital conference, Microsoft will unveil Microsoft Surface, the first in a new category of surface computing products from Microsoft. Surface turns an ordinary tabletop into a surface that provides interaction with all forms of digital content through gestures, touch and physical objects. Beginning at the end of this year, consumers will be able to interact with Surface in hotels, retail establishments, restaurants and public entertainment venues.
The user interface works without a traditional mouse or keyboard, allowing people to interact with content and information on their own or collaboratively. Surface is a 30-inch display in a table-like form factor that small groups can use at the same time.
“With Surface, we are creating more intuitive ways for people to interact with technology,” Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said. “We see this as a multibillion dollar category, and we envision a time when surface computing technologies will be pervasive, from tabletops and counters to the hallway mirror. Surface is the first step in realizing that vision.”
Surface also features the ability to recognize physical objects that have identification tags similar to bar codes. This means that when a customer simply sets a wine glass on the surface of a table, a restaurant could provide them with information about the wine they’re ordering, pictures of the vineyard it came from and suggested food pairings tailored to that evening’s menu. The experience could become immersive, letting users access information on the wine-growing region and even look at recommended hotels and plan a trip without leaving the table.
Surface computing at Microsoft is an outgrowth of a collaborative effort between the Microsoft Hardware and Microsoft Research teams. Surface computing, which Microsoft has been working on for a number of years, features four key attributes:
• Direct interaction. Users can actually “grab” digital information with their hands, interacting with content by touch and gesture, without the use of a mouse or keyboard.
• Multi-touch. Surface computing recognizes many points of contact simultaneously, not just from one finger like a typical touch-screen, but up to dozens of items at once.
• Multi-user. The horizontal form factor makes it easy for several people to gather around surface computers together, providing a collaborative, face-to-face computing experience.
• Object recognition. Users can place physical objects on the surface to trigger different types of digital responses, including the transfer of digital content.
Microsoft plans to ship Surface with a portfolio of basic applications, including photos, music and virtual concierge applications that can be customized.
Surface will be made available through a distribution and development agreement with IGT, a global company specializing in the design, development, manufacturing, distribution and sales of computerized gaming machines and systems products.
More information can be found at http://www.surface.com
“Microsoft Surface: Behind-the-Scenes First Look (with Video)” from Popular Mechanics, which includes interview footage with NYU multi-touch interaction researcher Jeff Han is here.
MacDailyNews Take: First of all, this is a press release released today by Microsoft PR flacks in an attempt to take attention away from Apple CEO Steve Jobs at the Wall Street Journal’s “D5” conference today. Now, this type of technology is the future, but we’ll be steering clear of Microsoft’s implementation simply because we want our stuff to work.* Also, carting around a coffee table would be a back-breaker.
* If Microsoft doesn’t like our statement about wanting our stuff to work and therefore avoiding Microsoft products, too bad; they’ve earned it.
This type of tech has been floating around for years. Who owns which patent for what, or even if there are any meaningful patents, is anybody’s guess at this point. The best-known researcher in this field is Jeff Han. Han is a research scientist for New York University’s (NYU) Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences. We first covered Jeff Han’s multi-touch interface work last February with a direct link to video of Han’s UI and a link to Wired’s “Cult of Mac” coverage. At the time, we wrote, “This could change everything. Again.”
After Steve Jobs’ Macworld Expo keynote unveiled iPhone, with its multi-touch interface, Han has updated his website (http://cs.nyu.edu/~jhan/ftirtouch/) with the cryptic blurb, “Yes, we saw the keynote too! We have some very, very exciting updates coming soon- stay tuned!”
Jeff Han presents his “Multi-Touch Interaction Research” work at the TED Conference 2006:
Perceptive Pixel, Inc. was founded by Jeff Han in 2006 as a spinoff of the NYU Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences to develop and market the most advanced multi-touch system in the world. More info: http://www.perceptivepixel.com/
Related articles:
iPhone debuts third-generation PC user interface: Apple’s Steve Jobs changes the world – again – February 20, 2007
Researchers have bigger plans for ‘multi-touch’ beyond Apple’s iPhone – January 19, 2007
Video of how Apple’s rumored touch-screen Tablet Mac could work – February 13, 2006
No idea how this will turn out, BUT…
This is the sort of shit MS should be working on. When you have 90%+ marketshare you’re spozed to find REAL extensions for it, not wait for the other guys to come up with something and copy it.
I’ll be this gets a small amount of resources vis-a-vis the 100% derivative Zune and that is what’s wrong with MS.
MS should invest in projects that really do try to innovate (like this), making the Windows dialtone (that’s what it is if you don’t use a mac) faster and more reliable…
and give the rest of the cash back to shareholders.
NOT
– lose a billion on XBox, .5 billion on Zune, etc etc.
Hope it goes better than that voice activated computer demo MS did a while back. Anyone remember that one?
“Computer… Delete File… Computer… Delete File… Computer Delete File…”
somebody’s gonna get sued… Sony has been working on this tech for years as well.
I hope nobody can really claim this technology – that way, all manufacturers can invest in bringing this to the mainstream.
It wont be the best tech that wins, but how the tech is related to the humans way of working, not just in gestures, but also in train of thought.
To me, apple understands people the best.
Microsoft has shown some good technology here, but has also demonstrated that they are a little naive when it comes to people. Credit where credit is due.
I said it before, and I’ll say it again. I could see a 17″ imac coming to market very soon, that will be a touch screen tablet that can detach from easily from its stand!!! Maybe not with IR cameras, but possibly with the iPhone gesture controls. October would be my best guess. A 30″ imac like this would also be pretty cool!
magic word – serious
Say what you want. I’m not going to put it down!
I think this is great! I also look forward to what Apple and the Industry does with it. I also believe (hope) Steve will talk about doing the same kind of thing for a imac in the near future (multi touch) This stuff is so cool.
MDN take is right on, I think. Yeah, this is cool, but with Microsoft, the devil is usually in the details (or lack of attention to).
The main innovation here appears to be the idea of allowing devices to interact with the surface – so you can pull stuff to/from your camera, MP3 player, PDA, etc. This part at least is cool. (Some of the ideas are just dumb though, like the glass that makes the table print out “Getting thirsty” – who wants that?)
I must say though – the concept of flipping over an album cover to see the tracks on the back… I feel like I’ve seen it somewhere before… maybe in January…
And the Blue Screen of Death comes to the Coffee Table!
Holy crashing coffee tables, Batman!
Yeah, but can it play Frogger?
I’m not into Microsoft Products but this is something interesting.
But $5000 to $10000 is insane.
I just watched all the videos at the MS surface site….. in all of the demos they say “in the future you’ll be able to…” etc. They can’t even do this now ? The product doesn’t exist…. the photo manipulation demo’s is the same as Jeff Han’s one last year….. I’m trying to work out what this will do…. I agree it would be nice to have a touch screen interface in a train station to get train-times etc. but this can just as easily be done to your iPhone or other cell phone… I don’t need multi-touch….. placing my cell onto the table to download this information has some merit but not a huge amount as again I can get it from Wi-FI or the internet at work….. I love multi-touch but I think it works best in the graphic design world and for architects etc. and on smaller devices where you don’t want a keyboard…. lets wait and see but like MS’s website tells you its in the future and its not available now so what’s the point of talking about a product that doesn’t exist ?
I wanna play starcraft 2 with multitouch, that allows me to play with four screens with three or four battles at a time.
If micro$oft can do that, and Leopard doesn’t do that then macs would be at a disadvantage.
But I think Leopard will be more promising that the vista giant they’re using…
Huh. Will drunk patrons be able to reboot the useless thing? Will it look better than an old Ms. Pac-Man in twenty years?
More importantly, where the hell is all the media attention right now? As near as I can tell it’s getting less attention than Paris Hilton’s lawyer fees.
its cool,
10 years heaps of cash finally,
They make some thing OK,
Screen of death at dinner huh or Crash when you put money on table
:
“Apple’s much rumored tablet will have many of the same capabilites as Surface (or iPhone), but its targeted market is on a more personal level – the individual user.”
Windows tablets have existed for years, so the surface is something Microsoft has in addition to what Apple will announce, not instead of it.
I fail to see the point of this.
I get the tech, I really do, it could be useful, but as a 30″ table with the display driven by a DLP projector in the bottom of the device?
Why?
If it was portable then maybe, if it used an LCD screen then it would be infinitely more useful, portable etc. not to mention cheaper. $10,000 for a projector table?
The ONLY thing I want to do with that machine is use it to play retro table console games. And for that it’d be better and cheaper to buy an original 80’s gaming table.
What is apples respsonse to this?