Wooden table computer?
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Microsoft has unveiled a new touch-sensitive coffee table-shaped computer called "Surface".
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6703249.stm
I wonder if they will make a wooden one
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Wouldn't a wooden table computer look something like this?
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One thing I hate a lot about Microsoft is their too generic names. What next? Create a new metal and call it Metal®?
I saw this multi-point touchscreen before. Is it a rip-off or what?
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@CapitalT said:
One thing I hate a lot about Microsoft is their too generic names. What next? Create a new metal and call it Metal®?
I saw this multi-point touchscreen before. Is it a rip-off or what?
I saw Bill Gates demo it on NBC's Today Show this morning. If it actually ends up working the way he showed, I'm impressed.
A couple of the examples:
Rotating and sizing images using your fingers. Email the picture by tapping the "folded over" lower corner.Ordering at a restaurant by dragging and dropping items from the menu.
Paying the check for the restaurant order above by placing your credit card on the table, and using your fingertip to drag a slider to calculate the tip. Also, splitting the check between multiple people by placing more than one credit card on the table at the same time, and drag/drop the menu items from the check to each individual credit card.
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I saw this multi-point touchscreen before. Is it a rip-off or what?
Yes you have seen this before. Now however, everyone out there will think that Microsoft came up with the idea because they saw it on TV.
Rotating and sizing images using your fingers. Email the picture by tapping the "folded over" lower corner.
Ordering at a restaurant by dragging and dropping items from the menu.
Paying the check for the restaurant order above by placing your credit card on the table, and using your fingertip to drag a slider to calculate the tip. Also, splitting the check between multiple people by placing more than one credit card on the table at the same time, and drag/drop the menu items from the check to each individual credit card.
If that's the demo seriously look at the original one demonstrated over a year ago. I can sure think of UI problems to solve that actually need solving, unlike credit card transaction problems that have already been solved. Just think MS processing _your_ credit card though one of these things. Yeah.
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Also see [url]http://www.perceptivepixel.com[/url]. A new updated demo for 2007. <hints id="hah_hints"></hints>
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@kaz said:
Just think MS processing your credit card though one of these things. Yeah.
Yeah, MS processing my credit card is my biggest fear. Handing it to random waitstaff to disappear with? No problem. Typing it into random websites? Feels safe to me! Reading it over the phone? Of course. M$ SEEING MY CC INFO?? OMG OH NOEZ TEH SECURITY FLAWZZ!!
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@ender said:
Wouldn't a wooden table computer look something like this?
Pa ne da si ti tudi iz slovenije? :D(yeah yeah, completely off topic, i know... and i deeply apologize :P)
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And yet again these filthy money grabbing bastards have "invented" something to increase their profit!!
It is an outrage!!!!
They stole it from Minority Report!!!!
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Some of the people seeing this are missing a major part of the point. It's not just a multi-touch-screen. That's what the links in several comments go to. It also includes the ability to do things like set your digital camera on the surface, have the pictures in the camera's memory download to the "Surface" device, and view, manipulate and share them by touching the surface they are displayed on. Similar functionality with a digital music player (though I'm sure the RIAA will have something to say about that!).
One of the uses planned is that T-Mobile stores will have them, and you can place several phones on the surface, have their features show up, and select optional features by dragging them onto the phone. I can think of a lot of applications for that kind of display in tech stores. (Heck, just watching the hypochondriacs shudder at the thought of touching something other people have already been fingering, could be worth the price of admission.)
I can think of several good uses for that technology in conference rooms if the thing can share documents, images, recordings, presentations, etc.
It's not anything hugely revolutionary, like the original GUI or storing data on discs instead of tape or cards, etc., but it is a cool idea, in my arogant opinion. (And, yes, calling disk-based storage "revolutionary" is a horrible play on words, but I just couldn't resist.) Of course, it's a serious luxury item, but very few electronic/computer goods aren't.
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@kaz said:
I saw this multi-point touchscreen before. Is it a rip-off or what?
Yes you have seen this before. Now however, everyone out there will think that Microsoft came up with the idea because they saw it on TV.
Rotating and sizing images using your fingers. Email the picture by tapping the "folded over" lower corner.
Ordering at a restaurant by dragging and dropping items from the menu.
Paying the check for the restaurant order above by placing your credit card on the table, and using your fingertip to drag a slider to calculate the tip. Also, splitting the check between multiple people by placing more than one credit card on the table at the same time, and drag/drop the menu items from the check to each individual credit card.
If that's the demo seriously look at the original one demonstrated over a year ago. I can sure think of UI problems to solve that actually need solving, unlike credit card transaction problems that have already been solved. Just think MS processing _your_ credit card though one of these things. Yeah.
yeah, your right. It's alot more important to draw pictures with my hands than pay bills, send email, share documents, and use my credit card. Besides, I think part of the point is that, while they might have made the first one, I don't see anything about them marketing it so that I can buy one.
Besides, saying that credit card processing is already solved is, if not dumb, just plain wrong. A huge problem in some parts of the world is waiters that steal credit card information when they disappear around the corner. And last time I checked, most restaurants would be RATHER annoyed if at the end of our 20 person business lunch we just handed them a stack of 20 credit cards and asked them to split the bill evenly between all cards.
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I hope that one of the first uses for these is a re-implementation of pacman and/or galaga.
