Microsoft Challenging Apple’s Multi-touch
Microsoft has just recently announced a touch-sensitive coffee table-shaped computer called “Surface.”
The idea is to have a computer system operating without the need of a keyboard and mouse and simply allow users to touch the screen in order to perform certain tasks, and it’s made all the more efficient with the use of multi-touch technology, although no doubt with a different name than Apple’s patented Multi-touch. For those who aren’t quite up to scratch with the latest technology news, multi-touch technology allows users to place a number of fingers on the screen at one time, while also working out when a user has accidentally touched the screen with a stray finger and canceling out the action.
Microsoft plans to aim “Surface” toward corporate users over the next couple of years, including such places as casinos, phone stores, and the like, at around $5,000 to $10,000 (£2,500-£5,000). There is then the hope of offering it to home users within the next three to five years at much cheaper and more affordable prices.
I’ll leave my reservations on “Surface” until I read some in-depth reviews, but the idea does sound like it’s trying to take the world of computing, as we know it, forward.
With Apple releasing the iPhone in around a month’s time now with its patented multi-touch technology, there has been some speculation that the multi-touch could be implemented in Apple’s upcoming operating system, Leopard, now due out in October. If this is the case, then Apple will no doubt be updating their Mac line-up to allow the technology to work effectively.
Touch screen and a virus
If this is how home computing is going to function in the next decade or two then I’d like to know that the software is going to work reliably. On-screen keyboards that fail to work because of a virus are no good at all and it’ll be impossible to restore the system to default settings without some external device controlling the computer. At this point it’s all well and good having a nag at Microsoft and its Windows viruses, but let’s be realistic here: in 10 years Apple is going to be a much bigger company than it already is, with OS X market share soaring higher than present, so there is no doubt in my mind that Anti-Virus software will be required. How will touch-screen technology without a keyboard and mouse fare then?
Touch screen but with a keyboard and mouse
One could stress that touch-screen computers can exist with a keyboard and mouse, a good example being Hewlett Packard’s IQ779 “Crossfire” PC, announced last year, which holds a 19” touch screen monitor on top of a standard computer (mouse and keyboard included). Very handy I hear you say, but the novelty of that will soon wear away when it becomes apparent that using a keyboard and mouse is both less of an effort and most likely more productive. Raising your hands to a monitor for an hour at a time to finish off that business assignment is going to work those shoulder muscles like you won’t believe—soon time to buy some protein shakes to ease up the soreness I think, folks.
Can touch-screen and keyboards live peacefully together? I really don’t think so. Perhaps using the touch-screen on an irregular basis would work, but are you really going to fork out an extra few hundred dollars just for irregular work? I didn’t think so, unless you’re Mr. Rich.
For casinos and shops only?
Microsoft plans to introduce “Surface” to home users within three to five years and to be quite honest, I say leave it to the corporate guys. Places such as casinos, supermarkets, phone stores, and restaurants would very well benefit from such technology where keyboards are perhaps less prominent, so I’ve no doubt Microsoft will find success here, but in homes? Think again.
Microsoft CEO, Steve Ballmer, said of “Surface,” “we see this as a multi-billion dollar category, and we envision a time when surface computing technologies will be pervasive, from tabletops and counters to the hallway mirror.” All good ideas start out with a dream, I suppose.
According to BBC News, “Surface” will be available in November in the U.K. in such places as Sheraton Hotels, Harrah’s casinos, T-Mobile stores, and numerous restaurants. I’ll be on the lookout for them.
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Comments
Keyboards and mice have nothing to do with viruses. Multi-touch IS an external input device, just like a keyboard and mouse. I’m curious as to how your computer with a keyboard and mouse will zap those viruses better than multi-touch when your computer locks up.
Do you have a magic keyboard?
Whiteside, I don’t think you’ve understood what I have said. The keyboard/mouse actions of ‘Surface’ are built into the computer - i.e: touch screen? If a virus wipes out the use of the onboard keyboard/mouse function, how will you perform any tasks on the computer in order to eradicate the virus? Multi-touch is not an external input device, it’s built right into the operating system.
This Daniel Eran article proves exactly how unoriginal Surface is, or how often the exact same features have been demonstrated by other companies and even homebrew groups.
Quote: At last month’s Maker Faire, homebrew robot makers were showing off a rear projection lucite table that similarly responded to finger touches from multiple users. I stuck my hands on it. Did they spend six years inside of a Microsoft bunker to whip together that free demonstration? No, they built it in their garage from spare parts.
As it’s Daniel Eran, the language is, shall we say, uncompromising, but the endless number of very similar examples of demos pretty much incontrovertibly establish his point that this MS demo is essentially nothing more than a rehashing of capabilities already thought-of & exhibited elsewhere and years previously.
The thing about MS’s tech demos is they really do never make it into great products. There’s something crucial and enormous from their entire development workflow. It seems to be the total antithesis of Apple’s obsessive quality-product focus.
*something crucial and enormous missing… like from that sentence
Surface would be useful in the home if it had good voice recognition support. Microsoft is a leading developer of voice recognition and speech analysis software.
Also, if the unit is angled more similarly to that of a desktop monitor then it could be mounted in a workstation similar to a console in Star Trek.
In this configuration I see no reason why a nearby bluetooth wireless keyboard couldn’t be used as an input device.
And even before all of that, it could be useful right now as an art station for kids. God help us though if they bombard them with ads.
But why would you buy Microsoft’s $10,000 ‘solution’ when you can achieve all the functionality you’ve described with a hugely cheaper custom solution using a proper touchscreen? A moderately capable homebrewer could provide the same functionality in a non-ridiculous form factor working singlehandedly in a month.
Ben Hall wrote: “But why would you buy Microsoft’s $10,000 ‘solution’ when you can achieve all the functionality you’ve described with a hugely cheaper custom solution using a proper touchscreen? A moderately capable homebrewer could provide the same functionality in a non-ridiculous form factor working singlehandedly in a month.”
The most interesting part of this concept is the ability to detect various objects placed on it. Syncing my phone by simply placing on the “surface” seems quite natural.
However, I’m really not surprised that Microsoft is releasing to commercial markets only. Microsoft clearly doesn’t have a strategy to bring this technology into the general purpose computing environment. Until someone figures out how to do this, it’s limited to custom applications in commercial vertical markets in specific industries.
Take at the Tablet PC, for example. The concept has a huge potential, but the reality is that consumer demand has been almost non-existent. Why? Microsoft’s implementation just isn’t compelling enough to make people “want” to use them. However, industries with special needs, such as medical and other vertical markets, are purchasing for Tablet PCs for their employees due to limited competitive advantages the provide.
By initially releasing only to commercial markets…
01. Microsoft doesn’t have to worry about poor consumer sales numbers because there are no consumer sales numbers to worry about.
02. Microsoft can generate commercial sales by creating perceived competitive advantages in vertical markets.
I’d note that Apple has taken a completely opposite approach in developing tablet / touch devices. Instead of releasing a tablet Mac (which I’m pretty sure it has the capacity to build), it’s releasing a mass market consumer device, the iPhone, which is very practical and will likely have a huge consumer demand.
Should be interesting to see how these different approaches pan out in the long run.
Also, the concept of object positioning and orientation is not unique to Microsoft.
You can already build a multi-tough, object positioning and orientation sensing “surface” using off the shelf parts and open source software. These guys did it in less than two years.
http://mtg.upf.edu/reactable/?media