Original Post
Microsoft Surface
Microsoft surface is basically a coffee table/multi-sensor touch screen/many others, that will (according to 2010 wiki) be available price-wise (now they are about 15k for a full unit) next year.
Here is the official info from the wiki.
"Microsoft Surface (codename Milan) is a multi-touch product from Microsoft which is developed as a software and hardware combination technology that allows a user, or multiple users, to manipulate digital content by the use of natural motions, hand gestures, or physical objects. It was announced on May 29, 2007 at D5 conference.[2] Initial customers will be in the hospitality businesses, such as restaurants, hotels, retail, public entertainment venues and the military for tactical overviews. The preliminary launch was on April 17, 2008, when Surface became available for customer use in AT&T stores.[1] The Surface was used by MSNBC during its coverage of the 2008 US presidential election;[3] and is also used by Disneyland’s future home exhibits, as well as various hotels and casinos. The Surface is also featured in the CBS series CSI: Miami and EXTRA! Entertainment news. As of March 2009, Microsoft had 120 partners in 11 countries that are developing applications for Surface's interface.
Microsoft Surface is a surface computing platform that responds to natural hand gestures and real world objects. It has a 360-degree user interface, a 30-inch reflective surface with a XGA DLP projector underneath the surface which projects an image onto its underside, while four cameras in the machine's housing record reflections of infrared light from objects and human fingertips on the surface. The surface is capable of object recognition, object/finger orientation recognition and tracking, and is multi-touch and is multi-user. Users can interact with the machine by touching or dragging their fingertips and objects such as paintbrushes across the screen, or by placing and moving placed objects. This paradigm of interaction with computers is known as a natural user interface (NUI).
Surface has been optimized to respond to 52 touches at a time. During a demonstration with a reporter, Mark Bolger, the Surface Computing group's marketing director, "dipped" his finger in an on-screen paint palette, then dragged it across the screen to draw a smiley face. Then he used all 10 fingers at once to give the face a full head of hair.
Using the specially-designed barcode-style "Surface tags" on objects, Microsoft Surface can offer a variety of features, for example automatically offering additional wine choices tailored to the dinner being eaten based on the type of wine set on the Surface, or in conjunction with a password, offering user authentication.
A commercial Microsoft Surface unit is $12,500 (unit only), whereas a developer Microsoft Surface unit costs $15,000 and includes a developer unit, five seats and support.[5] However Microsoft said it expects prices to drop enough to make consumer versions feasible in 2010."
a video showing its uses
And yes, of course there is an apple version of this. There is iTable, and iBar. That's all I know of from apples side since there is no wiki, just one video.
Apples version of MS: Surface.. iTable
Here is the official info from the wiki.
"Microsoft Surface (codename Milan) is a multi-touch product from Microsoft which is developed as a software and hardware combination technology that allows a user, or multiple users, to manipulate digital content by the use of natural motions, hand gestures, or physical objects. It was announced on May 29, 2007 at D5 conference.[2] Initial customers will be in the hospitality businesses, such as restaurants, hotels, retail, public entertainment venues and the military for tactical overviews. The preliminary launch was on April 17, 2008, when Surface became available for customer use in AT&T stores.[1] The Surface was used by MSNBC during its coverage of the 2008 US presidential election;[3] and is also used by Disneyland’s future home exhibits, as well as various hotels and casinos. The Surface is also featured in the CBS series CSI: Miami and EXTRA! Entertainment news. As of March 2009, Microsoft had 120 partners in 11 countries that are developing applications for Surface's interface.
Microsoft Surface is a surface computing platform that responds to natural hand gestures and real world objects. It has a 360-degree user interface, a 30-inch reflective surface with a XGA DLP projector underneath the surface which projects an image onto its underside, while four cameras in the machine's housing record reflections of infrared light from objects and human fingertips on the surface. The surface is capable of object recognition, object/finger orientation recognition and tracking, and is multi-touch and is multi-user. Users can interact with the machine by touching or dragging their fingertips and objects such as paintbrushes across the screen, or by placing and moving placed objects. This paradigm of interaction with computers is known as a natural user interface (NUI).
Surface has been optimized to respond to 52 touches at a time. During a demonstration with a reporter, Mark Bolger, the Surface Computing group's marketing director, "dipped" his finger in an on-screen paint palette, then dragged it across the screen to draw a smiley face. Then he used all 10 fingers at once to give the face a full head of hair.
Using the specially-designed barcode-style "Surface tags" on objects, Microsoft Surface can offer a variety of features, for example automatically offering additional wine choices tailored to the dinner being eaten based on the type of wine set on the Surface, or in conjunction with a password, offering user authentication.
A commercial Microsoft Surface unit is $12,500 (unit only), whereas a developer Microsoft Surface unit costs $15,000 and includes a developer unit, five seats and support.[5] However Microsoft said it expects prices to drop enough to make consumer versions feasible in 2010."
a video showing its uses
And yes, of course there is an apple version of this. There is iTable, and iBar. That's all I know of from apples side since there is no wiki, just one video.
Apples version of MS: Surface.. iTable
