Thoughts about design and technology.

Multi touch computing is here

June 7th, 2007

Multi-touch computing has been a technology in the works for a while, with a few different companies rushing to make it first to market with a product. Its no surprise that the first to get there is Microsoft with their Surface. They’ve been a head of the game with (single) touch screen tablet PCs for years and have invested a lot into their Microsoft Research division which is behind its development.

Microsoft Surface is targeted at companies that work in the entertainment industry, from casinos to hotels and restaurants. It’s basically a kiosk in the form of a table, using cameras for the detection of more than a dozen touch points and projecting the images using a DLP projector under the table.

At first, I was a little skeptical about the technology since from what I’ve seen working in the past made it seem like it was still in its early stages and needed some fine tuning. But after watching some of the videos of the product in action, I was surprised at how well it in fact worked.

Tags: interaction, microsoft, multi-touch

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