Getting in touch with your PC.

http://www.microsoft.com/surface/en/us/default.aspx
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kr1O917o4jI&feature=related

Wikipedia said:

Microsoft Surface (codename Milan) is a multi-touch product from Microsoft which is developed as a software and hardware combination technology that allows a user, or multiple users, to manipulate digital content by the use of gesture recognition. This could involve the motion of hands or physical objects.

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Surface

Honestly, hate Microsoft and/or barely useless technology you may, but you cannot deny this is pretty awesome. Just, y'know, the novelty and all that if anything, but it's not really made for the general consumer, it's a commercial product, so you could order your food using the table, or a drink refill, stuff like that. Sounds neat. I like the whole putting your phone/camera down and the pictures spilling out thing especially (can't find the video for that now... ;_;).

Anyways, yeah, pretty cool, can be self-built too, if you have the wood, camera(s), projector and infrared kit to do it (or the money). Anyone who hangs around in 'fun will know that I have plans for this technology, involving a couple of friends, my summer holidays and a lot of stressful moments where something stops working.

Thoughts?

You'd better videotape some of those stressful moments Cue, I wouldn't want to miss a second of that. :P


Anyhow, this is pretty neat; on the rare occasion where I watch television news, I've noticed that they're actually using these for weather reports and stuff now.

...though somehow, I don't think it would be the best idea to use this as literal wallpaper in your hallway as described by that video you linked, lol.

Say what one will about open source, Linux, Bill Gates, and Microsoft, but the fact is that MSFT has bags of money to throw around to do research just like this. Blame capitalism. And despite that, they come up with some damn good stuff! +1 on multitouch, 'cause I work on a tablet PC and ever since then, I SWEAR on touch tech! I want a Surface in my home to entertain guests -- and do quick things like check the weather, the news, while I drink my breakfast coffee :)

Some other cool stuff they made:

http://www.istartedsomething.com/20100409/microsoft-research-manual-deskterity-synergy-pen-touch/ -- Simultaneous pen and touch let the user intuitively work on a table service using various gestures

http://www.istartedsomething.com/20100322/bill-buxton-on-making-user-interfaces-natural/ -- Bill Buxton talks about making user interfaces more "natural", including viewing a photo on your phone by moving it around. It looks pretty weird on video, but I tried it using a piece of paper and it's actually pretty intuitive.

http://videos.visitmix.com/MIX08/UX09 -- The story of how they developed the Office Ribbon. Despite it being a total departure from the old UI (which most complaints stem from,) I've heard multiple accounts of tech guys saying "we've been getting WAY less tech support calls since 2007 came out." They cover Ribbon prototypes, usage data collection, hypothesis tracking, eye tracking, and all that good stuff.

I remember also seeing a phone prototype where they fitted the sides with infrared beams, and you waved your finger on the side in mid-air to do various gestures. Not sure if that was MSFT or not, but I thought that was cool.

Prime 2.0 said:

You'd better videotape some of those stressful moments Cue, I wouldn't want to miss a second of that. :P

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Oh, don't worry, we'll be vlogging it throughout.

Cue said:

I like the whole putting your phone/camera down and the pictures spilling out thing especially (can't find the video for that now... ;_;).

Anyways, yeah, pretty cool, can be self-built too, if you have the wood, camera(s), projector and infrared kit to do it (or the money).

Click to expand...

That part made me remember a little portable "toy" that TED was developing, with projector, gesture recognition, multitouch and multimedia integration:

http://www.blendernation.com/sixth-sense-technology/

And you can use it anywhere, even out of your office or home.

I want a Tony Stark workshop.

I remember seeing a video of the whole "lay cellphone on table" thing, it was pretty rad, but not news... D:

Cue said:

hate Microsoft and/or barely useless technology you may

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I can't speak for everyone else, but I don't hate Microsoft, thank you very much. I've always been a PC...even for the five years I was using a Mac, I was a PC at heart.

And, man, that Surface thing sounds downright revolutionary...but a thirty-inch screen would certainly limit mobility. In ten years, will all computers have this? Can we carry around Micro-Surfaces in our pockets? That would be awesome.

I hope it also has this built in. :P
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T14uybwG_B4

I found out about Microsoft Surface years ago. Has the whole thing finally come to fruition now? Like, is it actually out on the market finally?

Also: "Install Microsoft Silverlight Install Microsoft Silverlight Install Microsoft Silverlight"

Prime has said that on rare occasions that news channels use these.

So they've probably been out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VtIopu0UgXE

Now if only more games had the same gimmick...

fawfulfan said:

I can't speak for everyone else, but I don't hate Microsoft, thank you very much. I've always been a PC...even for the five years I was using a Mac, I was a PC at heart.

And, man, that Surface thing sounds downright revolutionary...but a thirty-inch screen would certainly limit mobility. In ten years, will all computers have this? Can we carry around Micro-Surfaces in our pockets? That would be awesome.

Click to expand...

It's not exactly made for mobility, they're made for point of sales and consumer use, though they will eventually be affordable and compact enough to become your coffee table at home (might try building one for that use using a lot of silicone and a short throw projector one day... :3). If only I could find a way to get the temperature of a drink, but I'd probably need to put a byte tag on every cup and have an expensive thermal camera, all this just so I can have it say "Cold", "Warm", "Hot", "Ouch" next to a cup you put down... =P I could perhaps make use of the IR camera to measure the intensity of any IR coming off the surface where the byte tag is placed.

Also, I never said you had to hate MS, that's what 'you may' is for, as in, 'some of you may hate MS, but regardless...'. Also, don't get my started on how PC and Mac are the same thing. ;)

Yeah, FB, they're basically coming to fruition now, I believe I saw one at a tech show last year, or something similar. I hear quite a few places, restaurants and other companies (some using it for planning and such) alike, are using them now. As for installing Silverlight, considering the fact that this is a prebuilt machine and not something you really download, somehow I doubt it's screaming that in your face... =P Okay you can get the Surface SDK, which I have. Actually, does WPF require Silverlight at all? Because most of the Surface apps are WPF. O.o

Also, don't get my started on how PC and Mac are the same thing.

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Its only faster but much more expensive. ^_~

Not to start a war or anything. :p

Cue: I was mainly referring to the website. I have to install Silverlight to view their website, and for Linux users, Microsoft is like "Lol, here's a redirect to Moonlight, you patent-infringing scum!"

Lol software patents. Microsoft almost decided to prosecute users of Moonlight, but in a show of mercy, made a public statement over in their "interoperability" channel saying that they would instead leave those users alone. Why are we allowing this huge corporation to control what software people are allowed to use? Whatever, I'm not installing Moonlight anyway.

Oh right.

Well, uh, most companies are a bitch with patents anyways. They try to patent everything.

So, anyone know how much of a contrast a surface - that is already being flooded by infrared light - would show when a hot mug is placed on it? :<

Ezer.Arch said:

That part made me remember a little portable "toy" that TED was developing, with projector, gesture recognition, multitouch and multimedia integration:

http://www.blendernation.com/sixth-sense-technology/

And you can use it anywhere, even out of your office or home.

Click to expand...

Try here.

Sixth Sense seems so much more useful then Surface.

Cheese said:

Try here.

Sixth Sense seems so much more useful then Surface.

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Depends on the purpose, Surface is a commercial thing more than anything, whereas Sixth Sense requires putting on gear, and would be more of a personal thing.

Guilty of both a double post and a bump, but I did say I'd keep you guys informed on my progress with this...

Spoilered for huge images.


The stressful moments on video will be around soon, Prime, we've only done the frame so far (see above), but when we move on to the actual tech stuff (waiting on some infrared illuminators from Hong Kong!) things will get messy (and awesome).

We lost our projector to my dad's work again, since we had it borrowed, so unfortunately, we'll be using it as a giant tablet till we can get a new one in (and a front side mirror...). Might also put some videos up when we demo it at my old school, too.

Dude, record yourself playing SRB2 on it! XD