MICROSOFT SURFACE COMPUTING
After years of research and development finally Microsoft has released product called SURFACE COMPUTER,it is not laptop,it is not desktop but it is table top…..it can identify almost electronic object placed on it….
How it works: The surface itself isn't touch-sensitive, but a series of cameras inside the table can see when someone places or drags a finger, hand or any other object on or across the tabletop screen. Internal projector lights screen from beneath.
Interface: People can use their hands to touch and move virtual objects on the screen, just as they would with a mouse on a traditional PC. The system also can recognize objects placed on the surface, based on their shape or on special codes affixed to them.
Size: 22 inches high, 21 inches deep, 42 inches wide, with 30-inch screen.
Technology: Uses a custom software interface on top of Microsoft's Windows Vista. Comes with wired Ethernet, integrated Wi-Fi and Bluetooth wireless, hard drive and 1 GHz processor.
Details Of MS Surface - Funny home videos are a click away
Initial customers: Harrah's Entertainment, Starwood Hotels and Resorts, T-Mobile and IGT, the gaming technology company. Microsoft says consumer availability is still a few years away.
Zombie points about this computer
1) It can In recognize a phone pulled off the wall and placed on the tabletop by a customer at a T-Mobile store. It would display features of the phone, show a pricing list and let the customer drag icons representing elements of a service plan onto the phone, before sending the virtual package to the register for purchase.
2) You can resize any picture by just dragging them from corners
Microsoft says businesses will start deploying the machines in retail and entertainment settings in November. Starwood Hotels and Resorts, Harrah's Entertainment and T-Mobile are among those planning to use Microsoft Surface.
Microsoft Surface, created under the code name "Milan," is the first product from the Surface Computing team, an unknown group that has grown, under the radar, to 120 people. The machine uses a specialized interface on top of Windows Vista. But with the product, Microsoft is breaking from its traditional PC model by offering hardware, not just software.
The table is about 22 inches high and 42 inches wide, with a 30-inch screen. It can be used simultaneously by multiple people sitting on different sides of the table. The components of the machine are inside the table, including a hard drive and a standard 1 GHz computer processor.
A projection system with optical technology sit under the tabletop screen, which itself doesn't contain electronics. Microsoft says it should be durable enough to serve as a restaurant table, spills and all.
Microsoft says it eventually plans to expand into other shapes and sizes of surface computers, including versions that could hang vertically on a wall.
The company says the product's genesis came in 2001, arising from brainstorming sessions between Andy Wilson of Microsoft Research and Stevie Bathiche of Microsoft Hardware.
Wilson has shown certain elements of the surface-computing technology publicly, as has Gates. But the company has kept its product plans under wraps until now.
"Bill wanted to announce this years ago. ... The reason we haven't done that is because we wanted it to be real," Thompson said. "I don't want it to just be nifty technology."
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