Let the Wookie win.

Preordered.

What no holograms? That shit is so last gen.

Two words: air hockey!

Like a videogame table, is just like a big screen DS

big screen DS? MULTI-touch. MULTI! touch screen vs. multi-touch screen is like foosball vs world cup.

Yeah, I saw one at Pizza Hut.

Nintendo have a patent for multi touch screen... in the beggining, the DS was suposed to have a multitouch screen. So, is not a big deal.

Pong

nothing exciting, apple uses multitouch on their phone. and dont even think about gaming on this cuz microsofts initial plans for this is commercial use putting the price on this for $5000-$10,000.


http://www.macrumors.com/2007/05/30/microsoft-launches-multitouch-surface-computing/

Something like this would be quickly welcomed at maybe an arcade. Too bad the arcade market isn't there anymore nor is any other market (such as home gaming) ready for such focus.

But for multimedia it seems great.

Oh man, this thing could do amazing things for the all but dead arcade biz.

If MS is smart, they'll start developing games that will let people play Surface games with people at home, on their Vista PC's or 360's, via the internet.....

Like Sega tried to do during the last days of the Dreamcast (Remember Alien Front Online?).

Didn't Nintendo do something very similar to this at their E3 booth a couple of years ago? It was a pond with fish that reacted to the waves.

I'm sure there are videos of it on YouTube somewhere.

I wonder what happens if you put a DS on that table? Probably destroys the universe. No biggie.

Video of Nintendo's E3 2005. Zelda's Pond

http://youtube.com/watch?v=fG5AXmxg6Fg

This seems fairly useless for most games, but board games would get a nice kick in the pants, as would CCGs.

Warhammer 40K without the setup, and trying to determine firing arcs, range and line of sight. That'd be great.

For like 100 people.

check the official site here. http://www.microsoft.com/surface/

we were sent it earlier today at work from microsoft.

I want one of these and a copy of Photoshop and various other art programs.
...although I can't even afford a Cintiq monitor, sooo....

I imagine that it would be an absolute nightmare working on this thing for anyone who has a cat, though.

Anyhow, even though Microsoft is working on this, Nintendo will probably be first out of the gate with a console built around this technology.
And the fanboys...they will scream "gimmick" until their throats bleed.

This, by the way, is supposedly* from Apple:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6379146923853181774


*I've heard some people say it's not Apple. I can't seem to find any real info on it. Not as polished as Surface, but it shows more possibilities.

microsoft has been working on this tech for a couple years now....it was shown about 2 years ago but without the camera/phone wireless interfacing and not as in depth as this

its not touch screen.. it is lame cameras

Ah, but what happens when you put a coffee cup on it?

This is so old. Japan has had this for years. The US is behind, when it comes to tech.

Some pretty myopic thinking here.

You guys ever feel like whenever they use multi-touch screens, they do it ever so cautiously?

I mean, its cool and all. But I wanna know I can drop a coffee mug on it and not lose my coffee table, yanno?

I doubt many developers will jump on this out of the gate. Microsoft will have to launch its own titles to get it off the ground. That is once the price comes down to the point it becomes a potential household item.

http://gamergeddon.com/

it's more than just a multi-touch, it also recognizes input devices, and credit cards and whatnot.

This was at CES or something. It seems as if M$ purchased the technology for use in a commercial market. I think the guy who originally created it saw it as a new way for people to use computers if I recall correctly.

Whatever, I'm sure I'll own one sometime in the future - even if it's not that amazing of a tech. To the guy who said Japan's had this for years - can you give a link or two as to who's made it and what they're called.

Microsoft's Surface is based on Jeff Han's research.
Makes use of special glass panels and infrared cameras. So cameras inside the table can see special tags or barcodes on the underside of items like wine glass, or dinner plate.

iPhone's concept is more traditional.

Reminds me of "citywall" running on Ubuntu
http://citywall.org/pages/about

Taito is already using similer technology in their arcade game
http://aquarian-ac.net/aaa/asobi_rule.html

I work on Slot Machines like that.

This interface paradigm works fine with a very small amount of information. However, it doesn't scale very well. I've seen all kids of things like this for more than a decade, and nothing ever makes it into real-world use.

It does, however, give us one bright glimpse of the future: the death of file requesters. Come on... I had a file requester replacement on my Amiga about 15 years ago called Magic Requester that was infinitely more powerful than the pathetic waste that comes with XP.

I don't know what it is about desktop widgets that gets geeks excited.

It has potential. I've been waiting for computers to be going this route ever since I saw those desks in Starship Troopers. Watching the map part makes me think of combining that with Civilization. Seeing some of the other multitouch videos and seeing how it can rotate and zoom, playing Civilization like that would be awesome. The world could be an actual globe that you rotate and zoom in to specific locations.

Must remember to never ever put wallet, mobile or camera on the table ever again.

"it's more than just a multi-touch, it also recognizes input devices, and CREDIT CARDS and whatnot."

Yeah, can't wait to swipe my Credit Card into a MS device, that will bring gameplay excitement to all new levels, like the realistic feeling of paranoia about their security track record. Or the sinking feeling that I microtransacted myself into a huge bill. In MS land, game plays YOU.

No matter who you are, that is cool shit.

The first thing I thought of when they announced this on the news plain as day: "Tom Clancy's Endwar"
It reminded me of how the general used something like this to command his army.

One immediate gaming use comes to mind: pinball. Tap the table in one spot to activate one flipper, tap the table in another spot to activate the opposite flipper, hold down your finger to draw back the spring which releases the ball. Voila. Digital pinball table.

-Le Driver
http://www.rpgb.blogspot.com

Wow, the University of Illinois had their own prototype around a year ago and I played it. Overall, I don't think that this will succeed because the internet and coffee is better.

Didn't HP already make this and show it off at their 40th anniversary thing a while back?

the guy that says japan has this is essentially right. with a caveat and a bonus.
these japanese arcade games use cards in the same way that this microsoft thing uses devices, but they save a fair bit of cash by not using a touch screen, but a seperate screen that reacts to the touchin.
the bonus is that its all joined together in groups of 5-16 and the overall action is displayed on a big screen.

So what happens if my fat ass cat decides to lay on it, and all those cat owners know, your cat WILL lay on it rather you like it or not. It will mostly try to lay on it when you are using it.

@ SAMFISH

Thats not Apple. Its a film from some NYU student technology proggy. It was released february of 2006 and Engadget has a whole article about it here:
http://www.engadget.com/2006/02/09/nyus-multi-touch-sensing-through-frustrated-total-internal-refl/

It got me excited a while back, and now i *hope* they have a patent and won't be ripped off by Microsoft or at least that Microsoft consulted them before doing the whole surface approach.

There was another vid of a screen that used input from objects to manipulate images (i.e. it was a video game where you used squares to make "platforms" for animated stick figures to walk across.) Not sure where that went in the internet storage bin.

13. Didn't Nintendo do something very similar to this at their E3 booth a couple of years ago? It was a pond with fish that reacted to the waves.

hahaha, that has to do with the shadows. that is nothing like Surface.

This should really be used for:

1. RTS games. Starcraft 2 + this table = awesome
2. Interactive board games and card games: Add features to board games like score tallies, or animations. Add a tiny barcode to Magic or whatever card game cards, the table can auto enforce rules so you can stop explaining to your dumb friends that NO THEY CANNOT USE "PROTECTION FROM WHITE" AGAINST WHITE PEOPLE
3. Photos, as shown
4. Can you say: Disco is back?

"Yeah, can't wait to swipe my Credit Card into a MS device"

Do you have any idea how many cash registers run on Windows?

Ha ha! Wow, I can now get scammed easier. Just throw my credit card anyplace and there you go, they get to charge whatever to your card. Nice. ;]

Yes, this would be a great gaming device, but I doubt I will be able to play (or even own) one for at least 7-10 years.

But what happens when you get a blue screen or red lights of death? I'm not paying to ship that thing out... :X

How often do you ever transfer photos from one camera to another?

Last I checked it's much more convenient to get them in your mail than on your limited SD card. And last I checked I store my pictures on my computer because I have about 20gb of it. Or even an archival dvd.

Point is you never have to get photos from one camera to another. If you want the pictures from your friend's camera she'll email them to you and save you having to transfer pictures to your computer. Or even just give you the SD card.

With photos the future is printouts. They're already pretty cheap and it's much more convenient to see them all in hardcopy. Secondly if you're viewing them digitally you'd look at them one by one, in full screen, for maximum clarity, unless you're an idiot.

What else was in the video? Oh yes, I'm sorry but I still don't plan my evenings digitally, as difficult as that may be to believe. I can remember all my appointments in a single day. Anything beyond that I can use web calendars.

And I doubt they'll get it to scan credit cards, highly doubt it. The screen itself might be interesting but the uses in this video are impractical. The different viewing angles will bother people a lot. What's already better is having a bigscreen tv hooked up to your computer and a wireless mouse/keyboard. Look at pictures and go on the web and show your friends. You can already do this with nintendo wii as well.