The Microsoft "Surface"

Even a Boulder Can Spring Forth a Flower

2007-09-20T01:13:00.000-07:00

In a markedly uncharacteristic move for Bill Gates, the Microsoft team has managed to blindside its competition by secretly developing and launching the next generation of hands-on computer interfacing: the Microsoft Surface—a coffee table-style touch-screen computer—and all without copying or adopting a similar design by Apple or any of its other competitors.

In an “off-campus” building, away from spying eyes, the team was able to piece together the table using a revolutionary internal five-camera design making it unlike and superior to any previous touch-screen concept (Derene).

After five years of secrecy, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer introduced the Surface to the computer world on May 29th, 2007, at the Wall Street Journal’s D: All Thing’s Digital Conference. No doubt that tech-gurus, designers, and Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple, were scrambling to figure out who Gates could have possibly stolen the design from (Look).

But there was no one else to claim the credit. It wasn’t the I-Table remodeled with a Microsoft logo—it was the real deal: a genuine, well-conceived design created and delivered by team Microsoft. There was nothing to do but offer a sigh of acceptance that Microsoft might actually, after all, have an eye for creativity and innovation.

Microsoft’s Official Surface Commercial

The New Era of Social Computing

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The Microsoft Surface has similarities to a traditional PC: it uses the Vista platform, operates on a Pentium 4 dual-core processor, requires two gigabytes of ram, and comes equipped with Wi-Fi, Ethernet, and Bluetooth. What makes it unique is its thirty-inch multi-touch screen, five internal cameras, and coffee-table design.

The Surface boasts four “unique” components, as hyped by Microsoft in its original press release:

- Direct interaction - Users can actually “grab” digital information with their hands, interacting with content by touch and gesture, without the use of a mouse or keyboard.

- Multi-touch contact - Surface computing recognizes many points of contact simultaneously, not just from one finger like a typical touch-screen, but up to dozens of items at once.

- Multi-user experience - The horizontal form factor makes it easy for several people to gather around surface computers together, providing a collaborative, face-to-face computing experience.

- Object recognition - Users can place physical objects on the surface to trigger different types of digital responses, including the transfer of digital content.

It is a social computer—its design invites several people at a time to touch its screen and interact with its technology. “Never mind social networking,” says Melissa Perenson of PC world. “With the Surface and its multi-touch technology, Microsoft envisions a new era of social computing” (Perenson).

Getting a Bit Touchy, Are We?

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The concept of touch-screens isn’t new, and it isn’t unique to Microsoft—the technology has been around since 1982. Apple’s new I-Phone, for example, banks on this technology for its easy and entertaining picture manipulation and screen scrolling (Derene).

What makes the Surface unique is its size—while an I-Phone is fun for one or two people, an entire group of people can gather around the Surface and enjoy its multi-touch functionality. Most traditional touch-screen computers, while they can be displayed to a small group of people, rely on single-touch technology. If you were to use an art program, you can only draw with one finger at a time. If you run all five fingers across the screen, the monitor will only display the line of one finger.

The Surface uses cameras to recognize when the screen is being touched, and therefore isn’t dependent on heat or pressure. Five people with ten fingers can lightly place their hands on the monitor, make any designs they want, and the Surface will register all of their movements (up to 52 touches at a time).

This camera technology also allows the Surface to recognize other non-digital objects as points of contact, such as paintbrushes or stylists, which could be revolutionary for digital artists.

It’s a computer, it’s a monitor, it’s a…piece of furniture?

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The Microsoft Surface went through a series of design changes before Gates was willing to publicly reveal it. Unlike previous Microsoft devices—Spartan instruments designed with an eye to utilitarianism—the Surface took its queue from the aesthetically pleasing devices created by its competitors, namely Apple.

Designers didn’t want a bulky, plastic box with a screen on top—they wanted something that would fit seamlessly into restaurants, stores, and coffee houses, something that was both pleasant to look at but didn’t call attention to its hardware—its magic, after all, is on the surface, not the housing. Original designs included the ill-fated “squashed egg,” and then the “podium.” The first working model of the Surface, called the T1, was “just hacked into an IKEA table” (Derene).

Tom Gibbons, Corporate Vice President of Microsoft, is pleased with the coffee-table design. “Because Surface is essentially housed in a table, it’s easy for individuals or multiple people to gather around it in a way that feels familiar—making collaboration more powerful and fun” (Look).

Students, teachers, and coworkers can comfortably sit around the table and work together instead of crowding around a monitor. With surface computing, you won’t have to physically separate yourself from the collaborative effort by turning your back to the group to clack away at a keyboard. Just plop your Big Mac and Coke on the table and start exchanging ideas.

Show Me the Green

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With a ten-thousand dollar price tag, the Surface won’t find its way under many trees this Christmas. Instead, the Surface is initially being marketed to high-end restaurants, hotels, and retailers who can afford the hefty cost—a selective market, yes, but one with over a half-million outlets and a multi-billion dollar budget (Derene).

One such customer is T-Mobile USA who plans on using the Surface in its stores to allow customers to quickly and easily look at features of different cell phones, compare several phones at once, advertise other products, and to even transact sales (Look).

A customer can place a cell phone on the screen, and the Surface will connect with the phone via Bluetooth or a chip installed on the phone (the next generation of Surface will also have a RIFD radio card built in). The Surface will then display everything the customer needs to know about the phone. The customer can select her price plan, pick out some accessories, slap her credit card onto the Surface, and viola! her phone is paid for—all without ever talking to a single employee.

Trade-Show Demonstration of T-Mobile’s Software

Hot Lattes, Hot Links, and Hot-Synchs

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Soon, as the price of the Surface begins to drop, smaller coffee-houses, stores, and restaurants will be able to join in the surface-computing market and use the table as a tool for advertising, displaying products, conducting monetary transactions, and inviting customers to sit down, stay a while, and spend some more money.

While you sip your Chai Latte with friends, you can sit around the Surface and synch your palm pilots, cell phones, and digital cameras; you can share your pictures and videos with each other, surf the Internet, and draw pictures; you can read the menu and order another round of drinks; or you can simply touch the surface and watch ripples float across an idyllic tide pool. And all without interrupting the coffeehouse Feng Shui, since the Surface comes with no keyboard, no mouse, no networking cables or any other external plug-ins. It is, for all purposes, a functioning and eye-pleasing coffee table, with the only human-machine interaction to be found in its touch screen.

The Future of Surface Computing

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Market analysts predict that in the near future, the price of the Surface will drop enough that it will be as common in homes as a PC or laptop. Its coffee-table design could even “evolve into a Pottery Barn-style catalog of computerized furniture—a dining room table, a wall-mounted panel, a desk or practically any surface” (Derene).

Gibbons of Microsoft claims that the introduction of surface computing—or NUI, natural user interface—is as significant as the movement from DOS to GUI interfaces. Since people are generally intimidated by technology, they tend to rarely take advantage of features on electronic devices. Surface computing breaks down these barriers and allows people to interact with technology in a more intuitive, engaging and efficient manner.

“It’s about technology adapting to the user,” says Gibbons, “rather than the user adapting to the technology” (Look).

How much more simple could it be than to place your camera on the Surface and watch the pictures spill onto the screen?

Surface-computing technology is in its infancy, and even engineers can’t predict its full impact. As prices drop and the Surface is found in various locations with various designs, and as technology and software increases, who can say what the future of the Surface will look like?

Or perhaps in ten years we’ll look back and wonder what all the hype was about.

Works Cited

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Derene, Glenn. “Microsoft Surface: Behind-the-Scenes First Look.” July 2007. Popular Mechanics. 13 Sept 2007.
http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/industry/4217348.html

“Look What’s Surfacing at Microsoft: Executive Q&A.” May 2007. Microsoft. 13 Sept 2007.
http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/features/2007/may07/05-29Surface.mspx

“Microsoft Surface Fact Sheet.” May 2007. Microsoft. 13 Sept 2007.
http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/presskits/surfacecomputing/docs/MSSurfaceFS.doc

“Microsoft Launches New Product Category: Surface Computing Comes to Life in Restaurants, Hotels, Retail Locations and Casino Resorts.” 29 May 2007. Microsoft.13 Sept 2007.
http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2007/may07/05-29MSSurfacePR.mspx

Perenson, Melissa J. “Microsoft Debuts 'Minority Report'-Like Surface Computer.” 29 May 2007. PCWorld. 13 Sept 2007.
http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,132352-c,futuretechnology/article.html

Appendix: Additional Multi-Media Resources

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Popular Mechanics Demonstration

Parody of Microsoft Commercial

Bill Gates Demonstrating the Surface

CNET Demo