Microsoft has launched an ambitious new way of computing, Surface Computing, very much like what we saw in the movie “Mission Impossible†which starred Tom Cruise, except that instead of glass panels (which presumably can also be done) the computing surface will be restaurant tables or hotel lobby desks.
Microsoft has partnered with Harrah’s Entertainment, Starwood Hotels & Resorts and T-Mobile USA to showcase the new technology called Microsoft Surface.
Surface enables users to actually “grab†digital information with their hands, interacting with content by touch and gesture, without the use of a mouse or keyboard.
The horizontal form factor also makes it easy for several people to gather around surface computers together, providing a collaborative, face-to-face computing experience.
What is not clear at the moment is how the image is projected onto the tabletop. Would it be like using a touchscreen monitor as a tabletop (in which case that would be blah), or is it an entirely new technology that offers a real new experience?
[Site: Microsoft Surface]