Unless you run a restaurant or need an eye-catching trade show demo, you’ve probably never considered dropping $US8,400 on a Microsoft Surface table. But this galaxy-bending demo of David Brown’s NUIverse astronomy app might be enough to convince you.
The problem with a multi-user tabletop computer is that it’s difficult for the software to keep track of who’s using it. Unless you strap a Kinect sensor to the underside that lets it make note of their footwear choices.
Devices like the Windows Surface have been in development for what feels like an age, and delivered very little. Now 3M Touch Systems is showing off a 46-inch prototype touchscreen table at CES that allows up to 60 touch points, and sounds like it might actually be useful.
Two things. One, we’re going to need a lot of hand sanitiser if Microsoft is right about the all-touch-everything future. Two, I’m surprised how much I like Microsoft’s vision — it’s futuristic, natural and metro-y.
Kinect’s pretty cool. Surface is cool. Depending on your preferences, Windows Phone 7 can be cool. Not too many people would describe the current crop of Windows 7 slate tablets as cool. But as Aussie firm nsquared demonstrates in this video, you can bring them all together with a little programming nous and make something that goes beyond cool.
I keep forgetting how wonderful Microsoft’s Surface technology is. Here, the New York Times R&D Lab have taken it, bent it to their will, and created news-centric tabletop interface that you’ll want to play with every morning. Just maybe not eat on.
Amnesia Connect from Amnesia Razorfish on Vimeo.
Microsoft’s Surface has always been an amazing piece of technology looking for cool consumer functionality to break it away from the corporate functions it’s currently locked to. Amnesia Razorfish are hoping to deliver that functionality with an iOS app that connects your iPhone or iPad to the Surface so you can seamlessly share content between devices.
One of the awesome announcements at CES this year was the new version of Microsoft’s Surface coffee table computer. Microsoft have published this video of the Surface table being used, and it’s a very impressive piece of tech. Now all I have to do is convince Seamus we need one in the office…
