Well folks every year IIT techfest exhibits latest tech-products. But this year saw a very different tech-baby from Microsoft. It was called Microsoft Surface. Imagine a hotel wherein you check in and see a normal table with a screen on it and you see the menu on the table can just drag fingers and select the menu items, moreover just place the credit card and automatically the payment is made.Stop imagining, because its all done in MICROSOFT SURFACE. Not only in hotels but many places just drag things with fingers and your work is done.
Microsoft Surface is a multi touch device from microsoft to manipulate the digital content using gesture recognition. Isn't that cool ! A whooping 52 different touches are recorded by the device at a moment. Such a surface computing device was very unique and I decided to know more about it .
Surface was codenamed 'Milan' and was launched on April 17, 2008. It was used in 2008 US presidential elections, CSI : Miami series and many more sci-fi series. Now, I came to know what type of technology Steven Spielberg or James Cameroon etc. used. Now it is used in AT&T stores, Disneylands future home exhibits, chain of sheraton hotels etc. Surface showcases the kind of technology and devices we can come across in very near future. I totally see automated homes, marts, hospitals in near future.
The technology allows non-digital objects to be used as input devices. In one example, a normal paint brush was used to create a digital painting in the software.This is made possible by the fact that, in using cameras for input, the system does not rely on restrictive properties required of conventional touchscreen or touchpad devices such as the capacitance, electrical resistance, or temperature of the tool used.The computer's "vision" is created by a near-infrared, 850-nanometer-wavelength LED light source aimed at the surface. When an object touches the tabletop, the light is reflected to multiple infrared cameras with a net resolution of 1024 x 768, allowing it to sense, and react to items touching the tabletop.
Coming to some of its technical details. Surface has a special edition of Windows Vista operating system. Currently it has 1) Intel Core 2 Duo @ 2.13GHz (normal motherboard)
2) 2GB DDR2 RAM 3)250GB SATA Hard Drive and soon microsoft promises to upgrade it to 1) Intel Core Quad Xeon "WoodCrest" @ 2.66GHz with a custom motherboard form factor about the size of two ATX motherboards.2) 4GB DDR2-1066 RAM 3)1TB 7200RPM Hard Drive. Surface is a 30-inch (76 cm) display in a table-like form factor, 22 inches (56 cm) high, 21 inches (53 cm) deep, and 42 inches (107 cm) wide. The Surface tabletop is acrylic, and its interior frame is powder-coated steel. The software platform runs on a custom version of Windows Vista and has wired Ethernet 10/100, wireless 802.11 b/g, and Bluetooth 2.0 connectivity. Hmm, coming to the price issue, its a bit costly. A commercial Microsoft surface costs about $12500 (5,62,500 INR (exchange rate 45)) whereas a developer Surface costs $15000(6,75,000INR(exchange rate 45)).Microsoft promises to decrease the prices but how much is an issue :P
Even if the device is new, the development tools are the one's used previously. Yes, the development of Surface applications is done on WPF(Windows Presentation Foundation) and
XNA. Soon developers will have an altogether different cup of tea to develop. I think developing Surface applications will be fun because even if its reel, surely it is going to be very close to real.
Hope to see Surfaces all around !
