Microsoft Surface - surface and gesture based computing lands
By Ryan Block 
posted May 30th 2007 1:37AM
posted May 30th 2007 1:37AM
Over the years we've seen plenty of surface and gestural interface computing systems and prototypes, but nothing mass-market -- nothing consumable, if you will. Microsoft aims to change all that with Surface, its first foray into surface / gestural interfaces; arriving in the form of a 30-inch table-like display, Microsoft envisions its eventual uses as pervasive as imaginable, like ordering beverages from your restaurant table and silently scanning your wine bottle's RFID tag to automagically present information on the vineyard and vintage. Sure, some of it's pretty pie in the sky, but Microsoft is touting Surface's multi-touch, multi-user interface, object recognition and gestural interaction, and it's out to dispel myths of vaporware with limited 2007 rollouts in T-Mobile stores, Starwood hotels, and even Harrah's in Vegas.As for the consumer end of things, it's estimated that we're still a number of years out on the technology (for starters these Surface units are estimated to cost up to ten thousand bucks). Pretty steep for what ultimately amounts to being an underbelly projector with digital cameras that track surface interaction (all of which running on a stock 1GHz Vista box), but the focus of any nascent technology is never price, it's function.
P.S. -If you're feeling this thing check out the 18 minute demo over at Microsoft's On10.
Apple fanboys are literally becoming more annoying by the day. Over at Gizmodo-- where they had a proper write-up of the device, not this Ryan Block weak sauce-- everybody was going nuts over it. This is truly revolutionary.
Be serious, Apple, Google, Dell and every other tech company in the world probably have one of these running in their labs. This idea (in addition to being rather obvious) has been around for years, take a look at some of Jeff Han's work. Don't get me wrong, I think it is a great idea, just not very well implemented (projector) or particularly inspired.
On another note, if anyone else compares this thing to an iPhone, I will hunt you down.
Leon, comparisons are going to abound. Some of it will be valid, much will be tripe. The fact that it shares interface ideas merits comparison. Quality ,implementation and accessibility can be legitimately compared and critiqued.
LOL @ the denial here. Seriously, I don't think some of you read much or watched this OR there are some serious fan boys here. I don't remember sitting a digital camera on an iphone and extracting files from them, then sitting a blue tooth device on the table and then simply sliding the files to them with your hands. IF the iPhone does things like that, I want one. Multi-touch is cool, but it is just a small piece of what this is.
Screw "The Island." When are we gonna get the display from The Minority Report? Now THAT would be worth the money.
I'm sure putting this table on an iphone is useless (well maybe not) but putting an iphone on this table would be much more useful. Surface PWNS!!!
The iPhone IS surface interface computing or however Microsoft want to coin it. From the look of it, its a scaled-down version of the same technology concept. It would not be that hard for Apple to expand the technology into full-size computing like a tablet or table. All Apple needs is just applications utilizing the technology.
Yah because I don't know about you but the experience with a 3" display is exactly like a 30". Fanbois go home.
I've watched the video. Yawn.
This concept is the exact same thing from the movie "The Island" Very cool stuff if you ask me. I think the hardest thing for this particular product is going to be the software. I mean its basically a big touch screen. Its going to have to recognize multiple people wanting to touch the screen. Plus how easy its going to be to manipulate what you looking at. I could see it becoming a must have item in 10 years essentially replacing the coffee table in the living room. Possibly replacing your office desk if its price and size is practical. RFID tags are gonna be an important feature of this product. So hopefully RFID security is up to specs. Otherwise were gonna have security issues that have already been exploited. Definetly looking forward to seeing where this goes. BTW watch the MS video before you make any comments. I haven't been this excited about a future product in awhile. What impressed me the most is when the system recognized the Zune and the cell phone.
WOW! A tablet PC attached to a table. Amazing innovation coming out of Redmond these days.
What's next? An iPod-like DAP? A PlayStation-like device? An OS X-like OS?
Many months ago I saw a video from a TED conference in which a researcher named Jeff Han unveiled something very similar. I, and everyone who saw it were completely blown away. This is a completely revolutionary way of interacting with a computer and if some people can't see it that says something about them, not the product.
As I expected, just the fact that the product has been unveiled by Microsoft makes people write retarded garbage about it. I'm not a big fan of Microsoft to say the least, but how about a little bit of objectivity? This technology is way cool and the fact that Microsoft has brought it to market so soon is amazing. The price tag is huge, but c'mon, this is brand new technology. It will get cheaper like everything else.
The people who are trashing it here and everywhere else (so predictable) are simply retarded. The name Microsoft makes them gag and completely forget any pretense of objectivity. The same people would be going bonkers if it either didn't have Microsoft in front of it or was called iSurface and was introduced by Steve Jobs.
I like Apple and own a Macbook, but the behavior of Mac fanboys is just absolutely pathetic.
Detach yourself for one moment from the notion that this has been unveiled my Microsoft, try to get your head our of your ass and see it in an objective light, people! This is awesome and has a million practical uses. Like I said, if you can't see it it says something about you (pea brain, perhaps), not the product.
To focus on some little things like the lag is also incredibly stupid. First of all this is brand new, so it obviously would have some issue and 2nd, it might not show up realistically on video.
Seems a bit similar to
http://www.merl.com/projects/DiamondTouch/
OK, it's been said many times in here already but I'll say it one more time for all you ifanboys: The innovation here IS NOT IN THE MULTITOUCH SCREEN!!!!!!!! Seeing the ability to put a camera on the table and have photos spill out or putting a cellphone on it and being able to drag pictures onto it like that is the innovation here. Also, the iphone isn't a computer. Lets see you play Half-Life on an iphone: 'nuff said.
Does it only come in blue(screen) ?
It's the future for sure, just make so it can scan documents somehow, imagine how cool and organized a desk would be, someone gives you some documents, you put them face down, the "surface" automatically scans them, then the scanned document appears under the real document and you drag it to a virtual file cabinet interface for storage or something like that, i would replace my desk with something like that in a minute!! lol
Wow. Great.
My cats are going to love walking and sleeping on this table.
hahaha, maybe the table can detect your cat and automatically show a picture of a dog and make barking sounds! lol
As Ballmer pointed out in his interview at D 2007 multitouch technology has been in academia for years. So has tabletop interaction (actually there are even conferences dedicated to it).
For those that may be interested, here is a rough and biased list of some relevant projects in this space. It's quick and limited to the projects that have videos but it should give you an idea of the history. I can only add three urls, so do a search for the others if you want to find out more about them.
1991 - Wellner: Digital Desk
http://www.idemployee.id.tue.nl/g.w.m.rauterberg//presentations/Build-It_Story/sld002.htm
1995 - Fitzmaurice, Ishii, Buxton: Bricks
1997 - Ullmer, Ishii: metaDESK
2001 - Patten, Ishii: Sensetable
2001 - Rekimoto, Ullmer: DataTiles
http://www.sonycsl.co.jp/person/rekimoto/datatile/
2001 - MERL: DiamondTouch
2005? - Jordà: reactable
2005 - Patten, Alonso, Ishii: PICO
http://www.jamespatten.com/pico/
I saw this Surface in October 2005 at one of Bill Gates' talk in Canada.
This just looks so much fun. I can't wait to hook up my lounge. Im over at http://www.surfaceforum.net if anyone wants to chat.
I saw this, and as a hardcore D&D nerd, I instantly started thinking about the applications for table-top D&D playing. This is a whole new paradigm once it gets into the house, or even a Starbucks or something.
1) It could do your math: roll dice, it reads the values on the bottom, remembers whats on the other side (hint, on a d20, the value of the opposing sides is always 21) and adds up the total. With a little work, you could add bonuses and minuses to a roll. It would rock for huge spell damages, or lots of little damage, all possible with a little work
2) MINIS! Just think about it. Seriously, I want this one thought about. How would the system identify minis? RFID? Little visual markers on the bottom of the minis like the stamps in the first link?
3) Have your iTunes or whatever near your hands and pick music easily, almost as an afterthought, instead of getting up to do it.
4) Digital books could be brought up right on the table, making them useful for the first time ever. In fact, I would like to just have as many books as possible in this format, and have them be little icons at the bottom. Better than a stack of books, which has always been a favorite part of the game, but only out of necessity. But how to conceal books from the players if you're a DM? You don't want them to know you're looking at the Kraken entry in the Monster Manual? Maybe an old-school DM screen can still be useful here.
5) In relation to point 1, combat could be simplified. Imagine a digital version of this! http://paizo.com/image/product/catalog/PZOOMS/PZOOMS1000_500.jpeg
6) Wizards could sell a very robust system (OPEN SOURCE PLEASE?) just like any accessory, to make a table such as this perfect for the game, making Wizards more money, and maybe tying in with their (now potentially useful) online initiative.
7) You could play with friends with other tables over the internet maybe?
8) Pull up art easily to show the characters what they're fighting, and let them keep looking at it instead of just showing them the picture in the book once or twice.
9) Maybe books could come with a stamp that links to an digital version of the book, so when you put your hard copy down, it loads the digital copy. This sounds unlikely, as Wizards thinks they can charge 30 bucks for a digital copy of a book.
10) Digital Character Sheets. Keep track of everything from hit points to spells per day, ticking them off as you use them, or ticking them again to get them back.
11) Now I'm dreaming, but get this: You have a digital copy of the book, right? You have a digital character sheet? You drag the monster entry out of the book and onto the table, and move it into contact with the character sheet, and you have their relevant combat statistics or bluff and sense motive modifiers, then roll dice (after having selected an action, such as attack, bluff, initiate maneuver, cast disintegration) or have the computer do the dice rolling (less fun).
Imagine playing games on it:
http://finalpass.net/interwebs/MS_SC2.jpg
nice for brief usage but i wouldnt wanna stay over it for long ... could be good for a keyboard ... i wouldnt get too excited about multi touch ... there's only so much you can do with 2 hands ... nice tech tho
Is anyone paying attention to the awesome software? Jebus.
It's amazing how these haters, out of their own envy, look over how amazing this product truly is, get over yourselves, please.
Cool I admit. But as I look at all the table-tops about me, I'm realizing they're all covered with stuff. I even bought a small freezer the other day that seems to have turned into a table-top collector of junk (makes getting the ice cream a real pain). Won't a table-top display/multi-touch-whatever-it-is get covered? Put this anywhere short of an arcade and you're going to need X-RAY vision to see what's on the screen.
Regarding the placing of objects on the surface: well, it seems very cool and amazing that the system recognized the Zune and the mobile phone, but the ugly truth is that it works through barcodes stuck onto the backs of these devices. It didn't wirelessly recognize the Zune, although it certainly seems like it should -- through Bluetooth or wifi, you'd assume. So, if anyone walks in off the street, it won't recognize their device until it has been barcoded and the information about it added to the Surface's database, it seems.
This, coupled with the rear-projection and array of internal cameras makes the whole thing seem a bit too under-engineered, a kind of big clunky Rube Goldberg device.
That doesn't diminish the amazing coolness factor in this kind of thing. Don't get me wrong, it is beautiful and I would love to run my fingers all over it.
Microsoft has picked the right marketing plan, too -- aiming it at the hospitality industry, where people will gather around it in a lobby. But will this kind of thing ever become useful in the home or office, where people must interact with it for long periods of time? The iPhone is interesting because it borrows from both the multitouch interface and the Mac interface to create a hybrid which (they hope) will be usable over the long haul. The Surface is a beautiful novelty, it will be interesting to see if it becomes anything more than that, unlike Microsoft's other mooted projects like it (the Microsoft House, anyone?)...
Sony did this a year ago. The MS one clearly has the same roots.
See for yourself.
http://blog.scifi.com/tech/archives/2006/12/20/wickedcool_sony.html&h=328&w=441&sz=22&hl=en&start=1&um=1&tbnid=P69ahXhpfTFjcM:&tbnh=94&tbnw=127&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dsony%2Be-plates%26svnum%3D10%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den
DOES ANYONE SEE THE WAY THE ALBUM ART FLIPS OVER TO SHOW THE SONGS? ITS EXACT TO THE IPHONES COVER FLOW FLIP. APPLE AND MICROSOFT ARE PARTNERING!
I dont care what anybody says, this is a very cool product from MS.
I can think of thousands of applications for this interface. The possibilities in music production alone would be enough for me to buy one right now. If my favorite sequencer ran software on this, I would get it right now. So I when the price drops, and theres a lot of software that runs on it, it'll become common place. Yeah its crude and ugly right now, but they have to start somewhere.
I like the fact that MS is introducing this early to the public. We can only hope that the price will go down in time as it gets popular and commercialized. For the fanboys, I have to agree that a little objectivity is needed here. Personally, I think MS Surface is one groundbreaking technology and evolution of computers. Like it or not, I think this where computers will evolved into along with the UMPC form factor.
The attitude of apple fanatics are getting a bit tiring already. I love Macs but I hate fanboyism. Get a grip people! Learn to be objective if needed.
Here's a link to the video that shows how T-Mobile plans to use it in their stores!
http://t-mobilesignal.com/forum/announcement.php?f=11
Looks like MS bought this from Jeff Han.
See his similar demo from Feb 2006
http://youtube.com/watch?v=PLhMVNdplJc
Heh...the cell phones they show are Contoso brand...
Anyone who's ever taken an MCSA/MCSE course has seen that before. I love the inside joke.
No one has brought up yet, that this technology will be perfect for children (and seniors).
Since I work with touchscreens, my own daughter learned to use a touchscreen interface from the age of two. Long before she could handle a mouse, she knew hundreds of submenus for learning websites, and even (to my surprise) figured out how to drag objects using her finger.
I remember seeing pretty much the exact same thing in a demo video from a guy named Jeff Han about a year ago. Check out http://www.perceptivepixel.com/. I hope he is getting his cut (yeah, right!).
I'm not that impressed sure it's cool but it's not really affordable or amazing, what impressed me most was that you didn't have to wait or open up anything when you place the wireless device on the table but that's just simple convenience, a wall would be better for normal computer apps, the table would be awesome for pong but seeing how much time people are on computers that table could really do some damage to your back if everyone is leaning over all the time. I would rather have a giant wall computer and for the wireless devices to not need to touch it to connect.
Microsoft Surface blog site availble at http://surfacefans.net/