Microsoft's proposed new user interface

[Cpilot]

Microsoft unveils new touch screen user interface called Surface.
Video here.
Microsofts "Surface"

[f0dder]

I wonder if they actually already have this interface designed, or whether it's just a bunch of preset animations with good acting to make it look real. There's been previous posts on DC about similar stuff, so it could very well be real.

I don't think this would work very well for a generic user interface, but for specialized stuff like shown in the video, it's cool enough. Seems intuitive, and lets you Just Do It^tm instead of worrying about the boring techy details.

A thing I'm not impressed about, is how laggy and unsmooth the animations seem. It's the same with flash, powerpoint presentations, etc. Come on people, we have insanely powerful CPUs and GPUs now, yet animation was smoother on my amiga, more than 10 years ago.

[Lashiec]

I'll pick my jaw off the floor...

Well, with this new technology and the nice new laws USA's general attorney is proposing (particularly, the first point) we'll get a "Minority Report" future in no time, and Tom Cruise in our house in the case of the latter.

I can understand all the shots reacting to the hand movements, but how do they do the digital camera part? How do they take a shot and the next second the shot is showed in the screen?? The camera is not connected.. And then they transfer the photo to the PDA??? HOWDOTHEYTHAT???!!! Or I'm missing something (I can't watch the video with sound so...)

All the Vista and Office bashing, and Microsoft comes up with this... This is not running Mac OS X or Linux, folks. And it's impressive. I want a job at Redmond, at least to try this.

Talking about Mac, Bill Gates and Steve Jobs had an public reunion today. I can't comment on this one (again, no sound) but they could enlist a notorious free software figure (I vote for Linus Torvalds) next time, if there's one.

[Hirudin]

Attempted IP theft? Sounds fair to me, so long as intellectual property theft is illegal.

I suggest they up the penalty though! Screw this $250,000 business, give the police the power to execute intellectual thieves on sight!

Anyway, it looks cool, but your arms would get in the way! After a while they'll invent a super cool transparent pointing device that will simulate finger presses. Later they'll invent a new wireless version, it'll be a little rodent sized peripheral with multiple buttons that will track the movement of users' hands off screen!

[justice]

The best way for a lazy man to order a drink without going up to the bar. 

[Carol Haynes]

They reckon it will be for things like booking theatre tickets and checking in to hotels.

Another example of not talking to people any more ... before long there won't be any real people out there - just a handful of MS employees (probably robots anyway) ....

Brave new world!

[Grorgy]

Couldnt help but think when reading your post Carol, that given a lot of so called customer service these days, we might be better off with robots, ahh but then we'd really need to move to a system like Zaine was suggesting in the pay for software thread since so few of us would have paying jobs, it would all be a hobby.

Edit, oh oh wasnt zaine, sorry, gothic i think well someone sheesh now im as confused as my post lol

[nudone]

i think nintendo should stick a couple of them together for their next generation 'nintendo DS'. other than that i think it would make a nice coffee table.

[Gothi[c]]

Some grad student at mit came up with this first:

http://cs.nyu.edu/~jhan/ftirtouch/
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6379146923853181774&q=touchscreen

I guess microsoft stole, i mean, 'borrowed' the idea, or gave the guy some cash so they could write the software for it.

[Gothi[c]]

Obligatory,... sorry

[f0dder]

Grmbl, why can't people move past the fscking win9x style BSODs and do a proper NT crash screen instead?

[Lashiec]

Because NT screens are not that sexy

Some grad student at mit came up with this first

Yes, that guy is also mentioned in the third page of the article, along with a demonstration video of his technology. He doesn't comment about Microsoft's invention, but at least he gets the credit. His technology seems to be different, though. The performance appears better to me than Microsoft's. And it takes less space.

The guys at MIT, by the way, are impressive. A couple of years ago I read about this other guy who created a screen that could be sprayed ON AIR! It was quite primitive, but it's truly a concept of science fiction. Unfortunately, the article didn't give any information about him or where to get some videos

hey reckon it will be for things like booking theatre tickets and checking in to hotels.

Another example of not talking to people any more ... before long there won't be any real people out there - just a handful of MS employees (probably robots anyway) ....

It's not that the people at those sites are exactly your talkative type. It could be also helpful at McDonald's... now that would be a good idea LOL

Han's invention, though, would fit perfectly in a living room.

[gjehle]

i spent the last weekend at c-base in berlin, germany attending a conference.
they had one standing around there that was bigger than MS's
i even played around with it for a a bit, here're some crappy pics i took: http://mein-bowl.de/mt/

nice thing: it was able to detect your hand or other materials responsive to infra red light
while they were still a good 15cm away from the surface and distinguish between touching the surface and just hovering over it
just take a look at the blue/greenish overlay blobs representing the detected area: http://mein-bowl.de/mt/dsc05394.jpg

[Gothi[c]]

Yes, that guy is also mentioned in the third page of the article, along with a demonstration video of his technology. He doesn't comment about Microsoft's invention, but at least he gets the credit

That's good. Let us hope there will be no patent war.

[nite_monkey]

ok Seriously, does MS really think they are still cool? They should rename their company to macro thief. First in their vista they stole ideas from mac and they stole their search feature from Google (Google desktop), and now they are using someone else's ideas for touch technology, though at least they are giving him some credit. Time for me to go do mass research on how to use linux, and then switch to linux.

[JennyB]

ok Seriously, does MS really think they are still cool? They should rename their company to macro thief. First in their vista they stole ideas from mac and they stole their search feature from Google (Google desktop), and now they are using someone else's ideas for touch technology, though at least they are giving him some credit. Time for me to go do mass research on how to use linux, and then switch to linux.

It's not that simple. This is only the most recent examlpeof a whole body of work. Here's an overview of multi-touch by someone who's  been working in the field for over 20 years:

http://www.billbuxton.com/multitouchOverview.html

[Gothi[c]]

It's not that simple. This is only the most recent examlpeof a whole body of work. Here's an overview of multi-touch by someone who's  been working in the field for over 20 years:

http://www.billbuxton.com/multitouchOverview.html

Great link! Nice timeline. You can really see the progress. Very interesting.

[Lashiec]

ok Seriously, does MS really think they are still cool? They should rename their company to macro thief. First in their vista they stole ideas from mac and they stole their search feature from Google (Google desktop), and now they are using someone else's ideas for touch technology, though at least they are giving him some credit. Time for me to go do mass research on how to use linux, and then switch to linux.

AHEM! May I remind you that all humankind advances comes from imitation and improvement?