The world is full of touchy-feely products…but until now, computers didn’t make the list. The interface was almost always at arms length, through a mouse and a keyboard.
Today, Microsoft officially exposed the planet to “surface computing.” This means you physically touch a screen mounted into the top of a table, and the computer inside reacts to it. It’s basically a big coffee table style box, and inside the box, cameras are looking up at that surface screen. When you put the pressure of your fingers down on the surface, kind of like holding your hand in contact with a frosted bathroom window, the cameras and internal computer can read your commands and react accordingly, projecting the image onto that same screen. Yes, I mean no mouse, no keyboard. The computer has gone touchy. We’ll see how feely it gets.
Tom Gibbons, Microsoft Corporate V.P. for Consumer Productivity eXperience (yes the X is capitalized) tells me this is the biggest shift in computers since DOS gave way to the first graphical interface. That was a long time ago. He also suggests in three to four years, surface computing will make it into the home. For now, the surface computer is a commercial product, and should start showing up in well-heeled hotel restaurants and bars beginning this November. Also expect these touch screen tables to appear in casinos, some retail stores selling cell phones and potentially a lot of other places. Cost of these large commercial units…from five to ten thousand clams.
What does ten grand buy? Let’s say you and I meet for lunch. We both sit down on a couple of stools at one of these surface computer tables, and plunk down our loyalty cards (think if it as a frequent flyer card for food). The computer reads the card instantly, recognizing each of us individually. It displays a menu, especially as it learns of our favorite dishes. With your finger, drag and drop your selection to the menu button and hit it. Lunch over, it displays a bill…lay your credit card down, move a virtual dial to select a tip amount and tap the screen. You're done. Microsoft says the hospitality biz will like this because it increases efficiency, and the wait staff only has to visit your table once. The table can also entertain guests with interactive water pools and games. I can see the extra goodies bringing in customers, but I will be amazing if they can get people out of the place if this catches on.
In another case, imagine your local cell phone salesperson using this same technology built into a counter to help you select a new phone. She sets a phone down on the surface, it identifies the phone, what it does and exposes virtual buttons to see your options. Touch and drag the buttons and discover the features of the phone.
That’s the business case .
At home, the potential seems even greater. Instead of a piece of furniture (and allowing a few years to let the technology mature) picture a surface computer flat screen on your counter, or hanging on your refrigerator, or built in to your office desk. Let it walk you through a recipe or sort through your digital photos. Picture those photos automatically sucked into the computer via a wireless connection to your digital camera. Want to blow up that photo, just take two fingers and stretch it out to an 11 x 14.
The biggest wow factor for me was assembling a jigsaw puzzle, where the picture on the piece actually moves! It was a lot harder than it looks.
I can’t see using it for spreadsheets, or writing long winded essays…so the mouse and keyboard will likely be with us for a looonnng time. But the surface computer is one to watch.