Microsoft "Surface" - Best Coffee table ever?

hantakage

http://digg.com/microsoft/Microsoft_Multi_Touch_technology_Surfaces

Microsoft have unveiled a new Table Top computer called "Surface". Go check out the videos. They are not the first ones to come up with this idea of course (Microsoft in copying other people ingenuity shocker!). More news in the article.

aidan_walsh

Microsoft in copying other people ingenuity shocker!

Because nobody has ever copied anyone else. Ever. In the entirity of history. Not one single occasion of it until Microsoft arrived and literally invented the word.

Steoob

simply... amazing i almost dont believe it... i cant believe something this revolutionary came out so soon http://www.microsoft.com/surface/ the videos on that site blow my mind, especially th ability to be able to put phones and mp3 players onto the table and just drag stuff into it... utterly mindblowing

Mr E

Wow, just wow. Very very cool technology.
I want one. Probably need to remortgage, but I want one.

Steoob

10000 apparantly... only in hotels and stuff in the near future but then again things come down in price very quickly nowadays... its like minority report except not holographic yet

Dman001

Savage. Definitly the future.

aidan_walsh

Apparently it can't do much more than the demos show at the minute, and some stuff like paper scanning won't be possible with the first version yet.

It also tracks peripherials placed on it by having barcodes stuck to the bottom of them, rather than some form of wireless communication, which I suppose makes sense but strikes me as ugly.

Its clever, but its not there yet.

AlmightyCushion

aidan_walsh wrote:

Apparently it can't do much more than the demos show at the minute, and some stuff like paper scanning won't be possible with the first version yet.

It also tracks peripherials placed on it by having barcodes stuck to the bottom of them, rather than some form of wireless communication, which I suppose makes sense but strikes me as ugly.

Its clever, but its not there yet.

Wasn't there a wireless usb standard approved recently? They could easily integrate this into it. Looks cool though. Wonder what it'll be like when it comes out.

zt-OctaviaN

AlmightyCushion wrote:

Wasn't there a wireless usb standard approved recently? They could easily integrate this into it. Looks cool though. Wonder what it'll be like when it comes out.

It may have a proximity based system but it would have to be on the surface similar to how those electric toothbrushes charge, electromagnetic signals, easily done but if theres another way well its anyones guess what there working on.

Fremen

It would be great to have one. Until you knock over a cup of coffee. Or your three year old draws all over it.

Steoob

Fremen wrote:

It would be great to have one. Until you knock over a cup of coffee. Or your three year old draws all over it.

waterproof and scratch proof... its just a piece of glass basically.... if you can manage to get coffee inside the actual system well thats your fault

martin84

Is Jeff Han the guy that has developed this?

Capt'n Midnight

aidan_walsh wrote:

Because nobody has ever copied anyone else. Ever. In the entirity of history. Not one single occasion of it until Microsoft arrived and literally invented the word.

nah , they copied the word too..

AlmightyCushion

Capt'n Midnight wrote:

nah , they copied the word too..

dubdvd

this has been around for a while heres where they got the idea from

http://www.akihabaranews.com/en/news-11387-HDTV%3A+The+interactive+and+intelligent+table+by+Panasonic.html

[IMG]http://www.akihabaranews.com-en-news_pics-11387-1.jpg[/IMG]

and if you dont have a table the wall will do

http://www.akihabaranews.com/review-63-X.html

Skatedude

it would be perfect hooked up to a htpc system, all your movies and music accessed through it, will probably have to wait till the price drops a wee bit

Steoob

dubdvd wrote:

this has been around for a while heres where they got the idea from

http://www.akihabaranews.com/en/news-11387-HDTV%3A+The+interactive+and+intelligent+table+by+Panasonic.html

[IMG]http://www.akihabaranews.com-en-news_pics-11387-1.jpg[/IMG]

and if you dont have a table the wall will do

http://www.akihabaranews.com/review-63-X.html

thats got eveything that the surface has done right... done wrong

MooseJam

Whats with all the superlatives being thrown at this, it's a bleedin touchscreen for gods sake yawn

art

MooseJam wrote:

Whats with all the superlatives being thrown at this, it's a bleedin touchscreen for gods sake yawn

It's not even that clever - it's five cameras stuck under glass.

Steoob

its the things like device recognition and the drag drop rotate resize interface that has me wowed

rc28

aidan_walsh wrote:

It also tracks peripherials placed on it by having barcodes stuck to the bottom of them, rather than some form of wireless communication, which I suppose makes sense but strikes me as ugly.

Its clever, but its not there yet.

The camera in all of those demos is a wifi camera and so it sent those pics wirelessly. While the other devices did have barcodes on the bottom of them they did say that gadgets that have wifi(like the zune which was demoed wirelessly syncing) will integrate wirelessly with the table in future.

AlmightyCushion

rc28 wrote:

The camera in all of those demos is a wifi camera and so it sent those pics wirelessly. While the other devices did have barcodes on the bottom of them they did say that gadgets that have wifi(like the zune which was demoed wirelessly syncing) will integrate wirelessly with the table in future.

That's pretty cool. Could they not implement bluetooth into it as well though?