The Power of Microsoft Surface

Multi-touch technology allows multiple inputs from multiple users. Microsoft Surface is one product that leverages multi-touch technology. For example, one can draw four lines with four fingers on a Microsoft Surface. You may activate the paint tool box on the screen, dip your fingers in different colors and draw on the Microsoft Surface. You can see the power of Microsoft Surface yourself, as the lines of different colors appear as you draw with your fingers. The power of Microsoft Surface allows many people to work simultaneously on the Microsoft Surface, by sitting around it.

Hospitality businesses like restaurants, hotels, retail businesses, and public entertainment venues will be bringing you the power of Microsoft Surface soon. Many applications are being built around the Microsoft Surface. The applications may need to be customized to a specific use before the third party developers start creating different applications.

Harrah's Entertainment, Starwood Hotels and Resorts, T-Mobile and IGT are a few companies that have signed up to bring the power of Microsoft Surface to their customers.

It appears that the restaurants will be an easier target as interesting applications can be built around the Microsoft Surface. The Wine glasses and Beer mugs can be identified by the Microsoft Surface, when placed on the surface. Each of these may be labeled with a special code (like barcode), which is read by the Microsoft Surface. If a beer mug is placed on the surface, the menu related to Beer appears on the surface. The user need to just select the item and the order automatically reaches the bartender. That is the power of Microsoft Surface.

About Microsoft Surface

After establishing the lead in software industry, Microsoft toyed with various hardware. We saw xBox, Zune etc. Then a bigger project was under development under code name Milan, which was all about Microsoft Surface. Milan was aimed to leverage the perfect combination of hardware and software. Manipulating digital content using hand gestures, motions and physical objects is all about Microsoft Surface.

Many had a wrong impression about Microsoft Surface. They thought it is another glorified and hyped touch screen computer. And they are proved wrong by the features provided in the Microsoft surface. The touch screen computers enable users to do away with keyboard and mouse. They can navigate the menu by touching various options to reach a logical end of viewing data or printing. And there ends the comparison. Microsoft Surface can do many more things, which you think are not possible!

What is so special about Microsoft Surface? One can touch a color in the one-screen palette and draw an image on the screen. Touch blue and draw the sky, Touch green and draw grass. Microsoft Surface can understand all this. It also recognizes various objects. The system can be designed to set up a plate on the surface and the system throws up a menu! And many more possibilities await us as we progress.

How can Microsoft Surface identify the fingers and objects? The technology itself is not new. It is called Multi-touch. University of Toronto had some pioneering work on multi-touch tablets and Bell Labs on multi-touch screens, way back in early 1980s. Steven Bathiche of Microsoft Hardware and Andy Wilson of Microsoft Research conceptualized leveraging multi-touch and thought about Microsoft Surface as product in 2001.

Microsoft formed a team in October 2001 to make Microsoft Surface a reality. The work went on briskly and a presentation about Microsoft Surface was given to Bill Gates in 2003. The first prototype was nicknamed T1 and the development team designed specific applications like photo browser, puzzles, games etc. After building more than 80 prototypes, the hardware design was frozen in 2005.

Experience the Tabletop Computer

It is as significant a progress in user interface technology as the progress from DOS [Disk Operating System] to GUI [Graphic User Interface]. Many research reports prove that a large number of people are intimidated and isolated by today’s technology. Many features available in mobile phones, personal computers and other electronic devices like digital cameras aren’t even used because the people aren’t as aware of the features and benefits as they should be or they aren’t as comfortable with the technology to enjoy those features Check the videos for all sorts of goodness of it being used for all sorts of applications, such as playing with photos, wirelessly pulling photos off a camera, map navigation and reservations, ordering and paying for food using credit cards.

Microsoft Surface - Is it really special?

What is so special about Microsoft Tabletop? One can touch a color in the one-screen palette and draw an image on the screen. Touch blue and draw the sky, Touch green and draw grass. Microsoft Tabletop can understand all this. It also recognizes various objects. The system can be designed to set up a plate on the surface and the system throws up a menu! And many more possibilities await us as we progress.

Many had a wrong impression about Microsoft Surface. They thought it is another glorified and hyped touch screen computer. And they are proved wrong by the features provided in the Microsoft Tabletop. The touch screen computers enable users to do away with keyboard and mouse. They can navigate the menu by touching various options to reach a logical end of viewing data or printing. And there ends the comparison. Microsoft Tabletop can do many more things, which you think are not possible!

There are four main components being important in it's interface: directinteraction, multi-touch contact, a multi-user experience, and object recognition. This device also enables drag and drop digital media when wi-fi enabled devices are placed on it such as a Microsoft Zune, cellular phones, or digital cameras. It features multi-touch technology, that enables multiple points of contact.

This technology allows non-digital objects to be used as input devices. This means that the source of information does not necessarily have to be digital in form.This is because,the technology does not rely on restrictive properties, such as the capacitance, electrical resistance, or temperature of the tool used

Direct interaction: Facility to manage digital information with hand gestures and touch instead on mouse and keyboard.

Multi-touch contact: User need not use only one finger to manage digital data. If user dips five fingers in five different colors in the on screen paint palette and draws five lines with five fingers, you get five lines with five colors