Microsoft and Wow haven’t gone hand in hand in a long time. Until now! Since, being first means everything, Microsoft’s latest offering surfaced today as the first step towards ubiquitous computing. With touch and drag technology, there are tons of potential for this. If you have ever used an ATM machine or been to uWink you’ve see similar ideas being put to use. Microsoft Surface is a commercial product for use by partners such as casinos, and will require device manufacturers to release compatible products. It has many features that are similar to that of Apple’s touchscreen computing technology, some of which will be seen in the iPhone. Here are the videos for these products.
Here is a video sneak preview of Surface. It is a coffee table touchpad computer with some really mindblowing features. The user or users for that matter use their finger(s) to control it. The computer actually has a camera that recognizes objects placed on its sruface such as Phones or Cameras and allows for specific device actions such as transferring photos and contact information.
Wireless computing is about to get really exciting. I guess pretty soon our homes will look like a scene out of Minority Report.
Here is the first demo of multi-touch computing from Jeff Han which aired back in Feb 06
And another famous demo from Jeff
Apple’s iPhone uses Multi-touch technology, but apparently they have not been able to hire Jeff Han. Apple bought FingerWorks in June 2006. Jeff was quoted saying “The iPhone is absolutely gorgeous, and I’ve always said, if there ever were a company to bring this kind of technology to the consumer market, it’s Apple. I just wish it were a bit bigger so I could really use both of my hands.”
And last but not least here is the complete iPhone demo, which by the way will be the first one released on June 29th, 2007.