The Alchemist on 30/5/2007 at 13:36
Now that's damn cool. Ubiquitous systems, smart computing. It's a nerdy orgasm. I imagine these things (and other smart displays) will become pretty standard the way LCDs and plasmas sprung up everywhere within a decade or so. A decade after that and we might have smart ads like Minority Report. Scary/amazing stuff.
Thief13x on 30/5/2007 at 15:21
cool, but couldn't really imagine using it a whole lot
scumble on 30/5/2007 at 15:28
For working with something for any length of time a coffee table might be a bit bad for the back - I can see a drawing-board type set up being far more useful.
rachel on 30/5/2007 at 16:53
I remembered the other design (featured in the video) that uses a wallscreen, from an article a few months back. That thing would probably be more practical for actual work. The coffee table design is more a casual, let's-share-files kind of thing, not for intensive tasks.
Its commercial implementations as shown in the MS videos would also indicate that they're not (yet?) intended to be used as workstations.
David on 30/5/2007 at 17:17
It's an interesting concept, and what they've shown is obviously really slick.
Where it will shine and be quite popular is in the commercial sector, for example the T-Mobile section and, to a lesser extent, the diner section. Both are featured in the video (
http://www.on10.net/Blogs/larry/first-look-microsoft-surfacing-computing/) here which may be different from the video linked above, I don't know.
I don't think this would work so well in the home, which is fine because they say that's not where they're aiming. However they do seem to take quite a lot of time to show off the media capabilities of the device, which doesn't seem like a very 'commercial' use for it.
Stardog on 30/5/2007 at 18:07
I'm not interested in this type of thing. It will just be an overly expensive dust collector in the end. If it cost $100 then yes, but it'll end up costing $2000, and only does things we can already do well enough already.
*Zaccheus* on 30/5/2007 at 18:28
I assume they will also make the screen available as a 'whiteboard' that you can hang on a wall.
Stating the obvious, it looks like they have a touch-screen which can take more than one input at a time. That could in itself be pretty cool, as you could play music on a keyboard, for example, if it can also tell how hard it is being pressed.
Looks promising.
:)
Goes away to watch the whole video
Aerothorn on 30/5/2007 at 18:37
Pretty awesome. Someone had to do it eventually. Microsoft has more money than they know what to do with, so the throw a TON at R&D, equaling some nifty devices.
The PI article says it will have on a 1 Ghz processor. In this day and age? I didn't even know they MADE processors that slow anymore.
Also apparently interacts with the Zune. Yay. Despite the predictions of HORRIBLE DEATH, Zune already has 10% of the market, making it the #2 player - well on its way to Microsoft's Ultimate Goal of 25% market share.
SD on 30/5/2007 at 18:46
Quote Posted by Aerothorn
The PI article says it will have on a 1 Ghz processor. In this day and age? I didn't even know they MADE processors that slow anymore.
Sure they do. What else would we put in our missile guidance systems?
