If you've been watching CNN's election coverage lately (and we think you have), then you've probably seen anchor John King
tripping the light fantastic on the channel's
Magic Wall touchscreen. Apparently, Microsoft has come up with its own version of the board -- essentially a
Surface flipped on its side and mounted. The device, known as the TouchWall, joins a handful of finger-friendly prototypes that Microsoft Research is working on (including a spherical unit we assume will be used strictly for world domination campaigns). The 4-foot-by-6-foot "wall" uses inexpensive infrared sensors and a rear-mounted camera -- which can be added to a variety of surfaces -- in order to create the hands-on experience. The company appears to be targeting this as a low cost "intelligent whiteboard" solution, so hopefully they'll be turning up in schools, small businesses, and the Engadget offices soon. Check the video after the break to see it all in action.
[Via
CNET]
posted May 15th 2008 11:13AM
This is an example of touchscreen the OS X way, not by some half-baked MS kludge (We won't be doing document editing for a while yet):
http://macenstein.com/default/archives/1360
MS had better start getting their copiers ready to work overtime.
Nice try MS, but don't take it too hard. You were never known for innovation, anyway.
That 'innovative' software you're showing off there is coded on Windows. See there http://nuiman.com/log/view/current_workflow_01/ are you even sure this software runs on a mac?
and it's running on vista (lolz), the ultimate stfu to mac fanboy
I can see this being a great tool in the courtroom.
O Lord, "intelligent whiteboards". My school bought a bunch of those with USAID money (ie your tax dollars). What a boondoggle. You draw on what looks like a whiteboard with something that looks like a dry-erase pen. The board detects the fake pen, shoots a signal back to a laptop cleverly hidden inside the professor's desk. The laptop fires a signal to an overhead projector which then shoots an image onto the fake whiteboard. Ten seconds after you draw a line, it appears on the screens. Needless to say, most people use real dry erase pens on the whiteboards, bypassing the 5,000 dollar system for efficiency and sanity.
Umm... what about the wii whiteboard?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5s5EvhHy7eQ
Yay, the viral outbreak of the century just got another tool in its belt
I think it would be really cool if all subway stations had a touchwall map, also perhaps putting tags on subway tickets to interact with the wall
Microsoft might just get largest "Bluescreen of Death" award yet!
As had already been mentioned, this is old News. Jeff Han has been doing it longer and better. His company...
http://www.perceptivepixel.com/
I've actually used one of his multi-touch wall displays and it is absolutely incredible. Manipulating a 3D model in real time using multi-touch is something to be experienced.
Microsoft has been after this for a long time.
But they have almost no idea what to do with it. The single thought behind this whole demonstration is the idea that maybe it would be better to lay out all your stuff on a big flat space instead of hiding it directories like we do now. Instead of navigating a tree to find your files, you would use multitouch to move in and out of a gigantic tabletop full of your files.
I don't think so.
This is what's so interesting about Jeff Han's work. His guys are figuring out what to do with this technology. They are re-thinking how we should be interacting with computers.
YAWN.
But seriously - this would be cool to use, but it's hardly "innovative.' They must spend a lot of time playing solitaire at MS research.
Why would anyone want a computer that forces them to stand when using it?