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Vincent has been hanging out with Microsoft at their latest Surface Blogger Event, getting hands-on with the company’s MultiTouch table. All of the user experiences we’ve heard about over the past few months were out on show, including the Rio iBar gaming, entertainment browser and virtual mini-bar, and AT&T’s in-store use of Surface as a phone information and accessory tool. They also demonstrated some of the table’s other talents, including its ability to photograph and display, in real-time, anything placed onto it - whether that be money, a drink or even a blogger’s face!
Check out the exclusive hands-on video with Microsoft’s Surface after the cut
While the glitzy stuff is all very impressive, what’s most interesting to me is the general use of MultiTouch - that’s what gives hints as to how it might be implemented in the Windows 7 OS. The virtual dial used to browse through multiple photos is particularly neat, and while the ability to zoom and pan with fingers is already in use on the iPhone, it really seems to come into its own on a larger-scale display.
Of course there are plenty of questions: what sort of hardware and minimum spec will recreating this sort of MultiTouch experience in the home require, and what do Microsoft consider the “killer app” to persuade the many doubters that the technology has a place in the home? This is only day one of the event, and Vincent is promising more video and hands-on photos of what Microsoft have up their sleeves for Surface.
Remember, you can click over to YouTube and select “watch in high quality” to see the full-resolution version
Meet the Microsoft Surface team:
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