Ok what the heck is this?

[CJ MAC OSX IPOD]

I think this is a cool thing to have in a bar/resturant... but in the home? imagine having to plug a table in? I bet it even has one of those mag safe leads If a girl was round your house a put a drink on a table and it lit up, she would be freaked out and plus it will make you look like a complete nerd.

[Thank The Cheese]

Gizmodo has posted a video demo of someone who has adapted the surface technology into a laptop.

http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/touch-me%...ble-271065.php

looks great. obviously early days -- the GUI of modern OS's is not set up for this, and it does not seem very responsive -- but very cool.

I was reading up on the Surface technology earlier this week and they use cameras rather than touch sensors to detect movement. I'm no engineer, but doesn't this seem over-complicated? They say they use cameras so that they can detect multiple touch areas at the same time -- but I don't see why you can't detect multiple touch sources using a sensor pad (an example of this is MacBooks which scroll when it detects 2 finders on the touchpad).

From what I have read it seems their technology uses similar techniques to those used for things like the EyeToy -- where software analyses each frame from a streaming video and detects the pixel differences between one frame and the next to calculate which objects are moving. It just seems like an inelegant solution to me as it is far less precise than a sensor grid. I wouldn't think it would do a good job with quick movements (such as typing on a touch screen). You could see from the video above when they showed the video of what the computer is seeing -- it lacked accuracy and responsiveness.

agree, disagree?

[Ferdinand]

Didn't Apple patent the multi-touch technology and everything, because this "pinching" and "stretching" stuff is used by the iPhone!

PS: TTC: I agree with you - the first time he clicked, the computer didn't even respond! Only when he pointed it directly to the middle of the screen did it work...

[CaribbeanOS-X]

Nice flash presentation with actors pretending to actually use the touch screen...

"And Action:
Key the the actor to touch the glass table..."NOW!"...
Ahhh you missed it again... CUT CUT CUT....
ok from the top TAKE 1049..."

You guys know where i am coming from!

Warmly,

CaribbeanOS-X

[Rhisiart]

I am pretty sure Apple have similar ideas. However, they would have to be pretty sure these things will sell before investing millions into their developement.

I personally like the concept, but I would rather have the hardware powered by MacOS than Vista (or Vienna, whatever).

[fryke]

Recent rumours state that Apple's working on a multitouch mouse. I guess that's a more decent (and much simpler and less expensive) way of implementing gestures to the user interface.

[bbloke]

On a different note, here's the Microsoft Surface Parody video.

[Qion]

Originally Posted by bbloke

On a different note, here's the Microsoft Surface Parody video.

That video was totally worth watching