Microsoft Surface From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Developer(s) Initial release Stable release

Microsoft April 17[1] 2008 Surface 2.0 / 2011

Development status Commercial applications Operating system Surface: Windows Vista, Surface 2.0: Windows 7 English www.microsoft.com/surface/

Available in Website

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. It was announced on May 29, 2007 at D5 conference.[2] Targeted customers are in the hospitality businesses, such as restaurants, hotels, retail, public entertainment venues and the military for tactical overviews. The preliminary launch was on April 17, 2008, when Surface became available for customer use in AT&T stores.[1]The Surface was used by MSNBC during its coverage of the 2008 US presidential election;[3] and is also used by Disneylands future home exhibits, as well as various hotels and casinos. The Surface was also featured in the CBS series CSI: Miami and EXTRA! Entertainment news. As of March 2009, Microsoft had 120 partners in 11 countries that are developing applications for Surface's interface.[4] On January 6, 2011, Microsoft previewed the latest version of Microsoft Surface at Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2011, simply named Microsoft Surface 2.0, which was built in partnership with Samsung.[5] Contents

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1 Overview 2 History 3 Features 4 Specifications

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4.1 Surface 4.2 Surface 2.0

5 Applications development 6 Related Microsoft research projects 7 See also 8 References 9 External links

[edit]Overview Microsoft Surface is a surface computing platform that responds to natural hand gestures and real world objects. It has a 360-degree user interface, a 30 in (76 cm) reflective surface with a XGA DLP projector underneath the surface which projects an image onto its underside, while five cameras in the machine's housing record reflections of infrared light from objects and human fingertips on the surface. The surface is capable of object recognition, object/finger orientation recognition and tracking, and is multi-touch and is multi-user. Users can interact with the machine by touching or dragging their fingertips and objects such as paintbrushes across the screen, or by placing and moving placed objects. This paradigm of interaction with computers is known as a natural user interface (NUI). Surface has been optimized to respond to 52 touches at a time. During a demonstration with a reporter, Mark Bolger, the Surface Computing group's marketing director, "dipped" his finger in an on-screen paint palette, then dragged it across the screen to draw a smiley face. Then he used all 10 fingers at once to give the face a full head of hair. Using the specially-designed barcode-style "Surface tags" on objects, Microsoft Surface can offer a variety of features, for example automatically offering additionalwine choices tailored to the dinner being eaten based on the type of wine set on the Surface, or in conjunction with a password, offering user authentication.

A commercial Microsoft Surface unit is $12,500 (unit only), whereas a developer Microsoft Surface unit costs $15,000 and includes a developer unit, five seats and support. Partner companies use the Surface in their hotels, restaurants, and retail stores. The Surface is used to choose meals at restaurants, plan vacations and spots to visit from the hotel room. Starwood Hotels plan to allow users to drop a credit card on the table to pay for music, books, and other amenities offered at the resort. In AT&T stores, use of the Surface include interactive presentations of plans, coverage, and phone features, in addition to dropping two different phones on the table and having the customer be able to view and compare prices, features, and plans. MSNBC's coverage of the 2008 US presidential election used Surface to share with viewers information and analysis of the race leading up to the election. The anchor analyzes polling and election results, views trends and demographic information and explores county maps to determine voting patterns and predict outcomes, all with the flick of his finger. In some hotels and casinos, users can do a range of things, such as watch videos, view maps, order drinks, play games, and chat and flirt with people between Surface tables. [edit]History

Demonstration using Microsoft Surface (View in high quality) The product idea for Surface was initially conceptualized in 2001 by Steven Bathiche of Microsoft Hardwareand Andy Wilson of Microsoft Research.[6] In October 2001, DJ Kurlander, Michael Kim, Joel Dehlin, Bathiche and Wilson formed a virtual team to bring the idea to the next stage of development. In 2003, the team presented the idea to the Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates, in a group review. Later, the virtual team was expanded and a prototype nicknamed T1 was produced within a month. The prototype was based on an IKEA table with a hole cut in the top and a sheet of architect vellum used as a diffuser.

The team also developed some applications, including pinball, a photo browser and a video puzzle. Over the next year, Microsoft built more than 85 early prototypes for Surface. The final hardware design was completed in 2005. A similar concept was used in the 2002 science fiction movie Minority Report. As noted in the DVD commentary, the director Steven Spielberg stated the concept of the device came from consultation with Microsoft during the making of the movie. One of the film's technology consultant's associates from MITlater joined Microsoft to work on the Surface project.[7] Surface was unveiled by Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer on May 30, 2007 at The Wall Street Journal's 'D: All Things Digital' conference in Carlsbad, California.[8] Surface Computing is part of Microsoft's Productivity and Extended Consumer Experiences Group, which is within the Entertainment & Devices division. The first few companies to deploy Surface will include Harrah's Entertainment, Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide,T-Mobile and a distributor, International Game Technology.[9] On April 17, 2008, AT&T became the first retail location to launch Surface.[10] In June 2008 Harrahs Entertainment launched Microsoft Surface at Rio iBar[11] and Disneyland launched it in Tomorrowland, Innoventions Dream Home.[12] On August 13, 2008 Sheraton Hotels introduced Surface in their hotel lobbies at 5 locations.[13] On September 8th, 2008 MSNBC began using the Surface to work with election maps for the 2008 US Presidential Election on air. MSNBC's political director, Chuck Todd, was placed at the helm. [edit]Features

Object recognition. Microsoft notes four main components being important in Surface's interface: direct interaction, multitouch contact, a multi-user experience, and object recognition. Direct interaction refers to the user's ability to simply reach out and touch the interface of an application in order to interact with it, without the need for a mouse or keyboard. Multi-touch contact refers to the ability to have multiple contact points with an interface, unlike with a mouse, where there is only one cursor. Multi-user is a benefit of multi-touchseveral people can orient themselves on different sides of the surface to interact with an application simultaneously. Object recognition refers to the device's ability to recognize the presence and orientation of tagged objects placed on top of it.

The technology allows non-digital objects to be used as input devices. In one example, a normal paint brush was used to create a digital painting in the software.[14] This is made possible by the fact that, in using cameras for input, the system does not rely on restrictive properties required of conventional touchscreen or touchpad devices such as the capacitance, electrical resistance, or temperature of the tool used (see Touchscreen). The computer's "vision" is created by a near-infrared, 850-nanometer-wavelength LED light source aimed at the surface. When an object touches the tabletop, the light is reflected to multiple infrared cameras with a net resolution of 1024 x 768, allowing it to sense, and react to items touching the tabletop. Surface will ship with basic applications, including photos, music, virtual concierge, and games, that can be customized for the customers.[15] A unique feature that comes preinstalled with Surface is the pond effect "Attract" application. Simply, it is a "picture" of water with leaves and rocks within it (a lot like Microsoft Surface Lagoon, included in the Surface Touch Pack). By touching the screen, users can create ripples in the water, much like a real stream. Additionally, the pressure of touch alters the size of the ripple created, and objects placed into the water create a barrier that ripples bounce off, just as they would in real life. [edit]Specifications [edit]Surface Surface is a 30-inch (76 cm) display in a table-like form factor, 22 inches (56 cm) high, 21 inches (53 cm) deep, and 42 inches (107 cm) wide.[15] The Surface tabletop is acrylic, and its interior frame is powdercoated steel. The software platform runs on a custom version of Windows Vista and has wired Ethernet 10/100,wireless 802.11 b/g, and Bluetooth 2.0 connectivity.[15] Surface applications are written using either Windows Presentation Foundation or Microsoft XNAtechnology.[16] At Microsoft's MSDN Conference, Bill Gates told developers of "Maximum" setup the Microsoft Surface was going to have:

Intel Core 2 Quad Xeon "Woodcrest" @ 2.66 GHz with a custom motherboard form factor about the size of two ATX motherboards. 4GB DDR2-1066 RAM 1TB 7200RPM Hard Drive

The discontinued (as of 6 January 2011) commercially available version had the following specifications[17]:

Intel Core 2 Duo @ 2.13 GHz 2GB DDR2 RAM

250GB SATA Hard Drive

[edit]Surface 2.0 Samsung's "SUR4.0 with Microsoft Surface", a third-party production of Microsoft Surface dubbed as "The Surface 2.0 Experience" has a 40 in (102 cm) 1080pLCD HD screen, 2.9GHz AMD Athlon II X2 processor, and Radeon HD 6700M and the Surface is 4 in (10 cm) thick. Microsoft Surface is now wallmountable and running off a new more polished, refined, Windows 7 GUI (now including Windows Phone 7 support). For this version Microsoft created a new technology called PixelSense. In this technology the IR sensors are made part of LCD display, which allows the surface of the table to sense, or see, what is on top of it without using a camera. [18] [edit]Applications development Microsoft Surface applications can be written in Windows Presentation Foundation or XNA. The development process is much like normal Vista development, but custom WPF controls had to be created by the Surface team due to the unique interface of Surface. Developers already proficient in WPF can utilize the SDK to write Surface apps for deployments for the large hotels, casinos, and restaurants.[19] [edit]Related Microsoft research projects Microsoft Research has published information about a related technology dubbed SecondLight[20]. Still in the research phase[21], this project augments secondary images onto physical objects on or above the main display. [edit]See also

DiamondTouch reacTable Gesture Table Lemur Input Device MPX Multi-touch Philips Entertaible TouchLight Surface computing

SixthSense

[edit]References 1. ^ a b AT&T First to Introduce Microsoft Surface in Retail Stores to Enhance Mobile Shopping Experience: First commercial Microsoft Surface launch to begin April 17 in select AT&T stores with expanded deployment planned throughout 2008 2. ^ "Bumps on the road to Microsoft's Surface". C-Net. Retrieved 2007-11-08. 3. ^ http://blogs.msdn.com/surface/archive/2008/09/08/Live-from-MSNBC_2C00_it_2700_s-Microsoft-Surface.aspx 4. ^ http://www.pcworld.com/article/160473/article.html?tk=nl_dnxnws 5. ^ http://www.engadget.com/2011/01/06/microsoft-and-samsung-unveil-sur40-thesurface-2-0-experience/ 6. ^ "Microsoft Surface Fact History". Microsoft. Retrieved 2007-05-30. 7. ^ Correction: The Island did NOT feature a Surface - istartedsomething 8. ^ Microsoft (2007-05-29). "Look What's Surfacing at Microsoft". Press release. Retrieved 2007-05-30. 9. ^ Microsoft (2007-05-29). "Microsoft Launches New Product Category: Surface Computing Comes to Life in Restaurants, Hotels, Retail Locations and Casino Resorts". Press release. Retrieved 2007-05-30. 10. ^ Microsoft Surface Now in AT&T Stores 11. ^ Harrahs Entertainment Launches Microsoft Surface at Rio iBar, Providing Guests With Innovative and Immersive New Entertainment Experiences 12. ^ Disney's Innoventions Dream Home is a Big Ad For Microsoft and HP...But I Still Want It 13. ^ http://www.microsoft.com/Presspass/press/2008/aug08/0813SheratonMSSurfacePR.mspx Sheraton Hotels & Resorts Transforms the Hotel Lobby Experience With Microsoft Surface 14. ^ "Microsoft Surface brings computing to the table". Retrieved 2007-05-30. 15. ^ a b c "Microsoft Surface Fact Sheet". Microsoft. Retrieved 2007-05-30. 16. ^ "Development Frameworks". Microsoft. Retrieved 2008-05-15. 17. ^ Product Data Sheet

18. ^ http://venturebeat.com/2011/01/09/up-close-with-microsofts-next-generationsurface-touchscreen-tables-video-interview/ 19. ^ What lurks below Microsoft's Surface? A brief Q&A with Microsoft 20. ^ http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/projects/hands-oncomputing/default.aspx#secondlight 21. ^ Clearing up the confusion on future Microsoft Surface [edit]External links Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Microsoft Surface

The Official Microsoft Surface Channel on YouTube

The Possibilities of Microsoft Surface After a long research, Microsoft has finally launched Microsoft Surface - a multi touch multi user surface computer. This is likely to change the way people use the computers in future in various businesses. The possibilities of Microsoft Surface are many. It depends on the creativity of the solution developers and the willingness of the businesses to change their infrastructure to accommodate Microsoft Surface.

Restaurants may have custom built furniture to sit around the Microsoft Surface, which wotks as a table as well as a computer. The menus pop up based on specific cutlery, so that one can select the items to be ordered. Send emails or browse the net Play games till the items are served. These are just a few of the Possibilities of Microsoft Surface. You go to a mobile stores and want to check the models you like and compare few models. Just pick them off the rack and place them on the Microsoft Surface. You can see the features as well as the comparisons. You then select one model and check out the accessories for that mobile phone. Drag them to the order menu. Check the ringtones. Drag them to the Mobile phone, so that they are automatically loaded on to the mobile phone. Check the items selected and the bill. Add items or delete items simply by dragging in or out of the menu with your hands. Once you are ready, confirm the bill. You also may be able to pay the bill by simply placing the credit card on the Microsoft Surface and drag the bill to the creditcard. And there goes your payment safely and securely and you need not give the credit card to anyone for swiping. Such are the possibilities that make your shopping memorable.

It may not be a distant dream where the teachers may have a Microsoft Surface to teach the students. Students may have a custom built hardware where they can create their assignments. They place these special devices on the Microsoft Surface. The teacher may see theassignment instantly and help the student. With this kind of possibilities of Microsoft Surface, learning could become fun. Collegues at office may sit across the Microsoft Surface, open a file, push it across, drag it, modify and then finally save the document. Photos can be shared easily, by just placing the digital cameras on the Microsoft surface. The Photos pop up once a digital camera is placed on the surface. Place another camera and you get to see those images too. One can drag the images across as they like to their cameras to share them. Similarly place two mobile phones and can see the ring tones, wall papers and can share them, by dragging into the mobile phone. These possibilities of Microsoft Surface allow sharing of pictures, images, videos, ringtones etc very easy. The Possibilities of Microsoft Surface are many. They depend on your imagination. Once the applications are built around Microsoft Surface and are made available for public use, the acceptance of Microsoft Surface is expected to be high. The Possibilities of Microsoft Surface like products are many and the consumers are likely get benefited in longer term.

Multi-touch Technology and Patents GestureTek Illuminate Table

Similar Products - Philips Entertaible Displax - Interactive Displays reacTable - Music Surface

What is so special about Microsoft Tabletop? One can touch a color in the one-screen palette and draw an image on the screen. Touch blue and draw the sky, Touch green and draw grass. Microsoft Tabletop can understand all this. It also recognizes various objects. The system can be designed to set up a plate on the surface and the system throws up amenu! And many more possibilities await us as we progress. Many had a wrong impression about Microsoft Surface. They thought it is another glorified and hyped touch screen computer. And they are proved wrong by the features provided in the Microsoft Tabletop. The touch screen computers enable users to do away with keyboard and mouse. They can navigate the menu by touching various options to reach a logical end of viewing data or printing. And there ends the comparison. Microsoft Tabletop can do many more things, which you think are not possible!

The Features There are four main components being important in it's interface: directinteraction, multi-touch contact, a multi-user experience, and object recognition. This device also enables drag and drop digital media when wi-fi enabled devices are placed on it such as a Microsoft Zune, cellular phones, or digital cameras. It features multi-touch technology, that enables multiple points of contact. This technology allows non-digital objects to be used as input devices. This means that the source of information does not necessarily have to be digital in form.This is because,the technology does not rely on restrictive properties, such as the capacitance, electrical resistance, or temperature of the tool used. Direct interaction: Facility to manage digital information with hand gestures and touch instead on mouse and keyboard. Multi-touch contact: User need not use only one finger to manage digital data. If user dips five fingers in five different colors in the on screen paint palette and draws five lines with five fingers, you get five lines with five colors . . . more Experience the Tabletop Computer It is as significant a progress in user interface technology as the progress from DOS [Disk Operating System] to GUI [Graphic User Interface]. Many research reports prove that a large number of people are intimidated and isolated by todays technology. Many features available in mobile phones, personal computers and other electronic devices like digital cameras arent even used because the people arent as aware of the features and benefits as they should be or they arent as comfortable with the technology to enjoy those features. . . read more

Videos Check the videos for all sorts of goodness of it being used for all sorts of applications, such as playing with photos, wirelessly pulling photos off a camera, map navigation and reservations, ordering and paying for food using credit cards. Click here to watch more videos and see it in action The Magic The Power The Possibilities

Whatever be the history and origins of it, the magic of this tabletop has already captured theimagination of many. read more

Multi-touch technology allows multiple inputs from multiple users. It is one product that leverages multi-touch technology. read more

The possibilities of this tabletop computer are many. It depends on the creativity of the solution developers and the willingness of the businesses to change their infrastructure to accommodate it. read more