
Microsoft Announces Surface Computer - brett
http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/05/29/microsoft-announces-surface-computer/
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staunch
His food ordering examples are funny because many restaurants and karaoke bars
in Japan have had touch-screen digital menus for quite a while:

<http://digidenki.com/wordpress/wp-content/pictures/_Image017.jpg>

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dpark
I somehow don't think Microsoft believes that they created the concept of the
touchscreen. What they are introducing is the interface they've built. It's
not your typical finger-as-mouse interface that touchscreens generally have.

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staunch
My point was that the example problem in that submission has been solved for a
number of years. I'm also not sure multi-touch is necessarily an improvement
over point-touch, in a greasy restaurant environment.

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menloparkbum
I find it weird that there are few mentions of Jeff Han's table, which was a
relatively big meme last August.

<http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/65http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/65>

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tuukkah
I'd prefer a bit more objective reporting with some background included,
perhaps this piece at Wired:
<http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2007/05/first_look_micr.html>

I suppose it's still important what Microsoft is interested in and rolling
out, but we should ask ourselves whether it's them, someone who came before
them, or someone who comes after them that defines the new interaction method.
Like the Wired piece mentions, others have done similar research and there
must be startups of various stages commercializing this. Do we know any?

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tyohn
I know there are a lot of Microsoft Hate-ers (MH) out there but; maybe just
maybe you MH can bring yourselves to admit this is really cool.

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byrneseyeview
I'm not an MH, but I do find this a little sad. They're now reimplementing a
very old interface digitally, instead of using computers to create something
new. It's like Henry Ford building a car that galloped 30% faster than the
average horse.

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cyu
If you look at it as a new interface for a computer, then it might not be too
interesting. But if you look at it as a new interface for a table or anything
that has a surface (microwave, walls, fridges), then it becomes very
interesting.

Anyone else find it funny that the site is using Flash, and not Silverlight?

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tyohn
I noticed that too - Flash not Silverlight. Kind of funny..

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amichail
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=muibPAUvOXk>

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8en
My world is coming apart, as MSFT continues to release....well, cool stuff.

