Surface Computing With Microsoft

Microsoft is taking the touchscreen approach very seriously. I've already written about their idea of a work desk, but what about the little guys? Microsoft took a few elements from their Center for Information Work and scaled things down a bit. The result is something that's fit for smaller businesses and medium-scale environments. The touchscreen premise remains true, but instead of a desk, they gave us a table.

The tabletop "surface computer", code-named Milan, is physically a 22-inch high acrylic table with a 30-inch horizontal display where you can let your fingers do the talking. Judging from the source article, it can do a lot of talking. Excerpts:

For instance, you can take a digital camera that's Wi-Fi enabled, put it down on the tabletop, and the machine recognizes it and downloads the photos. Then, you can interact with them much like actual physical photos—you can pass them around the table, shuffle them into piles to sort them, pull on the corners to zoom in or out. It's intuitive, quick, and brings a fun social aspect to a task (photo editing) that can be the very definition of tedious.
The Music application turns the table into a virtual jukebox, letting you drag songs onto a shared playlist that could power the music at a bar or restaurant. There's a Concierge application that helps you pull together an itinerary for a day out in a strange city, complete with recommendations and great looking maps.

The target clients are hotels, bars and other similar venues. If these devices pay off for Microsoft, then the question of getting touchscreen computers for home use will stop being an uncertainty.

Source: Gadget Lab

TAGS: Center For Information Work, Microsoft, Milan, Surface Computer, Tabletop, Touchscreen
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