

Future Microsoft tablet to be 'no thicker than sheet of glass' - ca98am79
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/technology/personal-tech/controller-freak/a-chat-with-microsoft-principal-researcher-bill-buxton-part-iii/article1679362/

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cryptoz
"A sheet of glass" can be pretty thick. What does that statement even mean?
Anyway this sounds totally awesome if it ever becomes available and I would
love for MS to push the industry in this direction. However, I doubt very much
they'll deliver on this. Cool projects rarely make it out of MS Research,
sadly.

Also, it seems like they're pretty far behind the times on this. Three years
is a long time, and it seems likely that the industry will change
significantly before then. Apple or HTC could easily come out with a similar
device before MS hits the market.

~~~
hop
These researchers seem very disconnected from the market. What hardware have
they shipped that people want to buy?

They should take a queue from Apple and have small teams or individuals
working on a 10-3-1 process - make 10 different prototypes where everyone can
go wild, the 3 best of those are further developed, then a final polished
iteration from those.

~~~
tzs
I think you've confused research with product development.

The person being interviewed is not a product developer. He is a computer
scientist who did pioneering research in touch interfaces going back the to
'70s.

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Kilimanjaro
Show, don't tell.

(Sent from a real iPad)

~~~
undees
No kidding! Right now, it's about as thick as a sheet of vapor.

~~~
msg
It's glassware.

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illumin8
Misleading headline. They are talking about the future Microsoft surface, or
table computer.

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tomerico
There have been many rumors (patent applications) that Apple intend to have
their iMac line act as a tablet. With a large capacitive screen and iOS (In
addition to OSX), which effectively would act as Microsoft surface, just with
mature software.

My bet is that we will see an Apple surface before a Microsoft one.

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frgbhnmnjh
Of course you wouldn't be able to see the screen for all the stickers saying:
"designed for windows glass", "windows home semi-starter- premium edition
(bathroom only not kitchen edition)", "intel inside" etc ....

~~~
pbhjpbhj
>all the stickers saying: "designed for windows glass", "windows home semi-
starter- premium edition (bathroom only not kitchen edition)"

It'll have a fridge hum detector to make sure you don't try and use it in the
kitchen ...

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raganwald
_Concept products are like essays, musings in 3D. They are incomplete
promises. Shipping products, by contrast, are brutally honest deliveries. You
get what’s delivered. They live and die by their own design constraints. To
the extent they are successful, they do advance the art and science of design
and manufacturing by exposing the balance between fantasy and capability._

[http://counternotions.wordpress.com/2008/08/12/concept-
produ...](http://counternotions.wordpress.com/2008/08/12/concept-products/)

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joezydeco
The Sun Starfire concept video from 1993 pretty much had the same idea:

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NKJNxgZyVo0#t=2m9s>

The problem I see with putting sensors in the pixels is that you're going to
need to light that pixel up to use the sensor. How do you sense touch or image
in a black section of the screen?

~~~
sbierwagen
The fourth subpixel would be infrared.

~~~
joezydeco
_"The best way to think about it is like a big LCD where there’s a fourth
pixel in every triad. So there’s red, green, and blue pixels giving you light,
and a fourth pixel which is a sensor that will capture stuff; go the other
direction."_

So five sensors, really.

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Groxx
Yeah, because Surface has been _so successful_ and doesn't mirror _anything_
the DIY crowd hasn't been doing for years and for thousands less, because the
tech is so simple. That's a good reason to tech it up further, so you can
crank the cost up further - that'll make it sell!

Not holding my breath on this one. Not even taking a deeper breath than
normal.

~~~
tzs
"Yeah, because Surface has been so successful and doesn't mirror anything the
DIY crowd hasn't been doing for years and for thousands less"

Cite?

~~~
Groxx
$350:
[http://www.maximumpc.com/article/features/maximum_pc_builds_...](http://www.maximumpc.com/article/features/maximum_pc_builds_a_multitouch_surface_computer)

Reactable has been around for a while: <http://www.reactable.com/> (if nothing
else, the first page of results found youtube vids from 2006)

There's this one, plus many more, from Instructables:
[http://www.instructables.com/id/Interactive-Multitouch-
Displ...](http://www.instructables.com/id/Interactive-Multitouch-Display/)
Many of the projects there come in well below $500 for _absolutely everything_
, and there are a few software libraries for detecting multitouch built
specifically for devices like these (reflected IR light) because the technique
is so cheap and simple.

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joeld42
A sheet of glass!? They could install the device in windows, instead of
installing windows on the device.

(sorry)

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powrtoch
I realize it's a different piece of hardware than the one he's describing, but
it's still at least a little funny that the picture toward the top has him
drawing on a device running Mac OS.

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mccutchen
In other news: Future Nike hoverboard to be 'powered by cold fusion'

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barredo
Well, seems that 'sheet of glass' it's the new 'football stadium' for small
measures

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jcromartie
I'm sure some tablet from the future will be that thin.

