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Overview
Surface is essentially a Windows Vista PC tucked inside a black table base,
topped with a 30-inch touchscreen in a clear acrylic frame. Five cameras that
can sense nearby objects are mounted beneath the screen. Users can interact with
the machine by touching or dragging their fingertips and objects such as
paintbrushes across the screen, or by setting real-world items tagged with
special bar-code labels on top of it.
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.
In addition to recognizing finger movements, Microsoft Surface can also identify
physical objects . Microsoft says that when a diner sets down a wine glass, for
example, the table can automatically offer additional wine choices tailored to
the dinner being eaten.
Prices will reportedly be $5,000 to $10,000 per unit. However Microsoft said it
expects prices to drop enough to make consumer versions feasible in 3 to 5
years.
The machines, which Microsoft debuted 5/30/2007 at a technology conference in
Carlsbad, Calif., are set to arrive in November in T-Mobile USA stores and
properties owned by Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc. and Harrah's
Entertainment Inc.
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