Impressed with Microsoft Surface
I’ve watched a video about surface computing before, but I can’t seem to remember where (or if it had anything to do with Microsoft). Nonetheless, Microsoft Surface (aka “Play Table”) looks great. At this point, I can’t imagine owning it or paying for it, but I’d definitely enjoy using it. I believe it’s initially only geared toward hotels, retail establishments, restaurants, and public entertainment venues, anyway, which is cool.
Of the hundreds of possible usages, I’d have to say becoming the table top in a restaurant/bar would be at the top of my list. In one of the videos, it shows two people ordering (or re-ordering) food by just dragging their choice to the center of the table. I don’t know that I feel comfortable saying “that’s much better than relying on a waitress,” since that’s one more step closer to total automated service, which I wouldn’t like (most of the time).
If you get a minute, you should watch these three short videos and see what you think.
Luke Monday, 04 Jun, 2007 Posted at 11:54AM
They should implement that table thing into my local Wagamama: at the moment the order is done on a PDA and e-mailed to the chef, but having that would be pretty funky. But yeah, it is nice in a way to have a waitress or wait, or you might as well just get a take-away.
It’s a smashing development though isn’t it, I wonder how it could be used in an office enviroment. Reminds me of a similar venture I saw last year, a literal ‘virtual’ desktop, where documents were laid about as virtual sheets of paper in piles on a desk, and different mouse movements performed different functions e.g. circling around a group of documents puts them neatly in a pile. Wish I could remember where I saw it though …
Ryan Monday, 04 Jun, 2007 Posted at 12:31PM
I think you might be referring to BumpTop 3D. Could it have been on this very site that you saw it?
fallenrogue Monday, 04 Jun, 2007 Posted at 03:43PM
that’s pretty pimp-tastic. You think that’s a modified tablet running WPF? Either way, I want want for PONG.
Luke Monday, 04 Jun, 2007 Posted at 11:58PM
Yeah I think your right, but I didn’t see that here sorry haha