Microsoft Surface Computing

About 3 years ago, I was sitting on the balcony together with one of my friends, and we were talking about an imaginary Restaurant where the eating tables were displays, allowing you to browse the menu card, preview the menus, play games etc...

Now Microsoft has taken this idea a whole step further and it is called Microsoft Surface.
What is it? Basically it is an extended multi-touch-screen device. On top of that (or physically more correct: underneath!), a built-in infrared camera recognizes objects on the surface, which leads to very interesting possibilities of interactions between this objects - especially if they support wireless networking. For example, you put a camera and a cell phone onto the surface, then drag n drop photos from the camera over to the cell phone.

Have a look at the video to get a better idea!


Sidenote: The table UI experience is built entirely using WPF and the .NET Framework - which is a great statement about its power.

And why do I write about that in the Hippotizer blog? Well, after all, it is about interactive visuals. In a future world full of surface computers, applications driven by Hippotizers will be endless!