Really cool to see the announcement of Surface this week by Microsoft. Behind all the smoke and mirrors this new human computer interaction (HCI) is known as multi touch and is probably the biggest jump we'll see in HCI for quite some time.
Examples on the net show both horizontal and vertical surfaces being used, with multi user interaction on one surface or virtual interaction with another surface user elsewhere.
Most of us have only ever developed interfaces aimed for point and click and keyboard inputs. Having developed touch screen interfaces as well my experiences are single touch interfaces can offer improvements in workflow, customer interaction and engagement. I've had a dabble at mobile phone and tv interfaces as well which are quite dull in comparison. Multi touch takes human-computer interaction to the next level and makes what we do at the moment look rather old school so this is really exciting.
A few commentaries I have read have pointed out that this technology has been available for sometime. Popular Mechanics has some more in-depth coverage on the development by Microsoft. I'm not sure where Perceptive Pixel fit in, but check out their video of vertical multi touch panels which shows off some cool ways of using applications available today like Google Earth.
Microsoft Surface uses applications written using WPF / Silverlight which is available today. The underlying OS is MS Vista. Microsoft are focussed on the business sector initially (due to the $US8-$10K price tag and reckon we'll start to see these in casinos and retail shops later this year. There is some cool examples of applications developed for mobile phone shops, restaurants and hotels. Can't wait for our first bite with the iphone.
Our kids will just laugh when we tell them that optical mice were a huge leap over the trackball variety, just as disks were over tapes, ink jet over dot matrix, broadband over dial up, iphone over ipod. I ponder what will surpass surface computing?
The really cool thing with this is that computing is now being taken to the masses in everyday furniture and appliances. Kiwi kids gotta get that IT degree. I think they call it lifestyle computing. NZ needs to leverage this and make sure that F & P has the first consumer surface fridge that lets me order a top up of groceries by reaching for more milk or grapes. Imagine the wall tiles in your shower being a waterproof multi touch display, you'd be able to shower in a virtual jungle while scanning your news feeds and viewing some holiday photos.
Update - check out the ibar
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment