So I went to the Microsoft Surface UK launch yesterday at the lovely swanky Haymarket Hotel in London.
Surface, which has been out in the US since December last year, is a neat product that costs £8500 a unit. That's for the tabletop, which has a surface computing platform that responds to hand gestures and real world objects. This is done using five cameras, which allow users to grab digital information and interact with the content through touch and gesture. Yesterday's launch was all about using Surface in the enterprise with some well known UK names already signed up, like Barclays and Tesco. We have pulled together a photo gallery on the way Tesco can see the product being used to help consumers shop at hope or for retailer to use for demostrations at events like wine fairs.
Microsoft's marketing director for new innovations, Philippa Snare told me the product she expected the product would still take off despite the current tough climate as companies weren't cutting back on innovation.
She also said that in the longer term the product would revolutionise home computing, turning it from an asocial experience into a social one, when a family can crowd round their surface coffee table and interact and share their computing experiences, whether by playing games, doing the weekly shop, or checking out holiday destinations etc.
I guess the personal computer was the private computer. But wireless and broadband, laptops and netbooks have changed the geographic and spatial restrictions, so you can be on your computer whilst watching telly with friends or family, the multi-touch digital tabletop platform will grow interaction and sharing, and develop richer experiences, maybe making computer a more social rather than anti-social experience.
Now that would be interesting..... I see the logic, just need to convinced that this is somethign need in their lives.
We have more videos tro come on this, so watch this space and we'll add the links, once we get them edited and onto the site.
Surface, which has been out in the US since December last year, is a neat product that costs £8500 a unit. That's for the tabletop, which has a surface computing platform that responds to hand gestures and real world objects. This is done using five cameras, which allow users to grab digital information and interact with the content through touch and gesture. Yesterday's launch was all about using Surface in the enterprise with some well known UK names already signed up, like Barclays and Tesco. We have pulled together a photo gallery on the way Tesco can see the product being used to help consumers shop at hope or for retailer to use for demostrations at events like wine fairs.
Microsoft's marketing director for new innovations, Philippa Snare told me the product she expected the product would still take off despite the current tough climate as companies weren't cutting back on innovation. She also said that in the longer term the product would revolutionise home computing, turning it from an asocial experience into a social one, when a family can crowd round their surface coffee table and interact and share their computing experiences, whether by playing games, doing the weekly shop, or checking out holiday destinations etc.
I guess the personal computer was the private computer. But wireless and broadband, laptops and netbooks have changed the geographic and spatial restrictions, so you can be on your computer whilst watching telly with friends or family, the multi-touch digital tabletop platform will grow interaction and sharing, and develop richer experiences, maybe making computer a more social rather than anti-social experience.
Now that would be interesting..... I see the logic, just need to convinced that this is somethign need in their lives.
We have more videos tro come on this, so watch this space and we'll add the links, once we get them edited and onto the site.
Comments (2)
We've already done some cool MS Surface development here in Pittsburgh. From a software engineering standpoint, it is simply fabulous. The IDE and SDK are simply amazing. Plus, the UI is so Apple-Quality that I find it suspect that Microsoft could pull off such a graphically cool UI :)
Posted by tonyrocks | March 21, 2009 2:35 AM
Posted on March 21, 2009 02:35
Glad to see the Wine Guide surface applicaiton getting such great coverage in the UK. This was originally developed this application for the Tesco Wine Fair.
A video of the application in action at the fair can be found here: http://vimeo.com/2237575 Also a more thourough walkthrough of the application was shown at PDC2008 and can be seen here: http://vimeo.com/2475135
For additional information about the Wine Guide and our other solutions starter, folks can visit http://www.identitymine.com/Surface
Great coverage,
Kurt Brockett
Director of UX Evangelism - IdentityMine, Inc.
Posted by Kurt Brockett | March 25, 2009 1:04 AM
Posted on March 25, 2009 01:04