In the not-too-distant future we're all going to be dumping our keyboards and mice for a multitouch tablet. At least, that's what Microsoft Corp. wants us to do. According to Microsoft, multitouch technologies are going to rekindle our love for personal computers. Just go to surface.com and see what the software giant has in mind.
Microsoft calls it Surface computing. Surface is a collaborative and interactive environment where users can reach out and touch digital content with their hands. The technology is evolutionary because it will change the way people interact with computers.
Solution providers still have to wait one or two more years before Microsoft releases Surface to all of its partners, but the Redmond, Wash., company has announced four partnerships already: T-Mobile USA, Bellevue, Wash.; Harrah's Entertainment, Las Vegas; Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, White Plains, N.Y. and IGT, Reno, Nevada. Those partners have exclusive rights to build applications for the Surface table and redefine the way the technology can be used in their businesses.
Microsoft is gearing up to deploy its multitouch Surface technology this spring and it comes with a $5,000 to $10,000 price tag. Microsoft is first focusing on the leisure entertainment and retail market—for instance, Harrah's can use the Surface table to develop new casino games. Likewise, Starwood Hotels can implement interactive help desks, allowing hotel guests to plan their local activities without having to rely solely on hotel staff. The Surface table might even show up in hotel rooms with all sorts of applications to entertain guests.
As it stands, the Surface table works well in large open sitting areas in hotels and in corporate front desks. The table is an appropriate size for collaborating in retail environments.
Microsoft envisions Surface computing as becoming more pervasive than kiosk appliances. The company sees many applications built in government and in private businesses, including homes. When combined with virtualization technologies, Surface might redefine what the office space will look like as well.
The History Of Multitouch
There are huge market indications that multitouch computing is going to reignite interest in display technologies. In 2007, Apple Computer Inc.'s highly successful iPhone launch hinted that consumers were eager to put aside consumer-electronic mini keyboards in favor of multitouch devices. For the first time, users were able to reach out and touch digital content with their hands, all thanks to iPhone's multitouch display. The iPhone redefined the way people interact with digital content, accessed productivity applications, searched the Web and used personal information. The iPhone even made shopping over the Web a little simpler.
But the story on multitouch doesn't begin there. In 2006, Jeff Han, a multitouch display inventor, started a company called Perceptive Pixel as a spinoff of New York University's Courant Institute to develop custom wall-size multitouch interfaces. The work Han and his team did at New York University for the past few years on infrared-based multitouch screens is stunning. The U.S. military is said to be its first customer.
Lenovo, Morrisville, N.C., released the X60 multitouch tablet in 2006. Like the iPhone, this tablet uses capacitive/resistance circuitry to identify touch on a screen. However, capacitive/resistance technology only approximates multitouch capabilities but it is ideal in consumer-electronic devices because the circuitry can fit in small spaces.
In June 2007, Microsoft quietly posted a video on YouTube.com showing how ordinary notebooks can be retrofitted to work with multitouch. The video came from research conducted by the Microsoft team in Cambridge, U.K. The research video might have been a clever maneuver by Microsoft to prevent notebook and tablet vendors and LCD display makers, including rival Apple, from obtaining patents. Already Apple, Cupertino, Calif., has two key patents pending on multitouch—one on fingers and hand gestures and the other one on a multitouch sensor circuit that is being used in its iPhone display—and has begun the process to trademark the term "multitouch" in Asia.
Infrared-based large multitouch screens and the iPhone's capacitive/resistance display were the first technologies used in commercial products in 2006 and 2007. In 2008, consumer-electronic vendors will continue to use either infrared-based panels or capacitive/resistance touch screens. There are no indications of other multitouch technological breakthroughs in 2008. Microsoft's Surface table, by contrast, falls in the infrared technology camp.
Next: The Surface Technology
