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Surface Computing

Surface computing involves interacting directly with a touch-sensitive screen instead of using a keyboard and mouse. Early work was done at the University of Toronto, MIT, and Alias Research. Major vendors like Microsoft, PQLabs, and Ideum have released different surface computing platforms like Microsoft Surface, the iTable, and MT-50. The Microsoft Surface in particular has seen various real-world applications in places like AT&T stores, hotels, and sporting events. Surface computing allows users to directly manipulate digital objects on a screen in an intuitive way similar to physical objects.

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96 views2 pages

Surface Computing

Surface computing involves interacting directly with a touch-sensitive screen instead of using a keyboard and mouse. Early work was done at the University of Toronto, MIT, and Alias Research. Major vendors like Microsoft, PQLabs, and Ideum have released different surface computing platforms like Microsoft Surface, the iTable, and MT-50. The Microsoft Surface in particular has seen various real-world applications in places like AT&T stores, hotels, and sporting events. Surface computing allows users to directly manipulate digital objects on a screen in an intuitive way similar to physical objects.

Uploaded by

Getzi Shinola Immanuel
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Surface computing

Surface computing is the term for the use of a specialized computer GUI in which traditional GUI elements are

replaced by intuitive, everyday objects. Instead of a keyboard and mouse, the user interacts directly with a touch-

sensitive screen. It has been said that this more closely replicates the familiar hands-on experience of everyday

object manipulation.[1][2]

Early work in this area was done at the University of Toronto, Alias Research, and MIT.[3] Surface work has included

customized solutions from vendors such as GestureTek, Applied Minds for Northrop Grumman,[4]. Major computer

vendor platforms are in various stages of release: the iTable by PQLabs,[5] Linux MPX,[6], the Ideum MT-50,

and Microsoft Surface.

[edit]Applications

Surface computing is slowly starting to catch on and is starting to be used in real world applications. Here is just a

sample of what surface computing technologies have been used.

The Microsoft Surface is starting to pick up popularity and has been used in various places and

venues. AT&T became the first retailer to use Surface to help their customers purchase phones. Customers could

place the phones on the Surface and receive full phone specs, as well as pricing.[7] It has also been used in a wide

variety of locations which include hotel lobbies, such as Sheraton Hotels,[8] as well as venues which included Super

Bowl XLIII to help police organize and monitor the event in great detail.[9] It is also starting to gain use in the

broadcasting industry and has been used by MSNBC during the 2008 US Presidential Elections. However, USD

$15,500 (device only) is still considered expensive for most businesses.

There are other new surface computing applications that are still being developed, one of which is from the MIT

Media Lab where students are developing wearable computing systems that can be used on almost any surface. The

name of this device is SixthSense.[10]

A surface computer is a computer that interacts with the user through the surface of an ordinary object, rather than

through a monitor and keyboard.

The category was created by Microsoft with Surface (codenamed Milan), the surface computer from Microsoft which

was based entirely on a Multi-Touch interface and using a coffee-table like design, and was unveiled on 30 May

2007. 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.

The Surface is a horizontal display on a table-like form. Somewhat similar to the iPhone, the Surface has a screen

that can incorporate multiple touches and thus uses them to navigate multimedia content. Unlike the iPhone, which

uses fingers' electrical properties to detect touch, the Surface utilizes a system of infrared cameras to detect input.

Uploading digital files only requires each object (e.g. a Bluetooth-enabled digital camera) to be placed on the Surface.
People can physically move around the picture across the screen with their hands, or even shrink or enlarge them.

The first units of the Surface will be information kiosks in the Harrah's family of casinos.

Also receiving units will be T-Mobile, for comparing several cell phones side-by-side, and Sheraton Hotels and

Resorts, which will use Surface to service lobby customers in numerous ways.[1][2]

The Surface has a 2.0GHz Core 2 Duo processor, 2GB of memory, an off the shelf graphics card, a scratch-proof

spill-proof surface, a DLP projector, and 5 infrared cameras as mentioned above. However, the expensive

components required for the interface also give the Surface a price tag of between $12,500 to $15,000.[3]
On touchscreen displays, multi-touch refers to the ability to simultaneously register three or more distinct positions
of input touches.[1] It is often used to describe other, more limited implementations, like Gesture-Enhanced Single-
Touch, Dual-Touch or real Multi-Touch.

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