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INDEX

Introduction History Description System Requirement Features Applications Disadvantages Current Uses Conclusion

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INTRODUCTION

Microsoft Surface is a Multi-touch product from Microsoft which is developed as software andhardware combination technology that allows a user, or multiple users, to manipulate digital content

by the use of natural motions, hand gestures, or physical objects.

The Microsoft Surface will revolutionize everything you've ever known about touch technology.With a fullyinteractive, touch sensitive surface - Microsoft Surface will undoubtedly change the way we work and do

business. What is Microsoft Surface? Microsoft Surface, the first commercially available surface computer from

Microsoft Corp., turns an ordinary tabletop into a vibrant, interactive surface. The product provides effortless

interaction with digital content through natural gestures, touch and physical objects. Surface is a 30-inch display

in a table-like form.

Factor that's easy for individuals or small groups to interact with in a way that feels familiar, just like in the realworld. In essence, it's a surface that comes to life for exploring, learning, sharing, creating, buying and much

more. Soon to be available in restaurants, hotels, retail establishments and public entertainment venues, this

experience will transform the way people shop, dine, entertain and live.

, topped with a

Microsoft's groundbreaking idea, the "Surface," is a computer that is stated to replace currentfashioned computer systems so that the usage of a keyboard and mouse are no longer necessary.

Instead, users of this computer will be able to manipulate objects on the screen by voice, touch, and

usage of a stylus. The display of the unit is protected by hard plastic, and can interact with other

products placed on top of it, including digital cameras and cell phones, without the need to plug in a

cable. It even goes so much as to interacting with mundane objects, like drinking glasses - truly

showing us what the future has in store for touch technology. As a result of these touch-responsive

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capabilities, the product will be able to act much like a kiosk - and be able to facilitate restaurant

orders or other purchases

Using familiar PC-related practices such as drag-and-drop, a Surface user can simply manipulateobjects on the screen by dragging them with their fingers. As seen in the demo videos, this capabilityis monumental as it even allows oneself to drag and drop MP3 files directly onto a MP3 player that

is placed upon the Surface screen. Similarly, files can be transferred amongst mobile devices in this

same fashion (place two devices on the screen, and drag-and-drop files from one to the other, using

your finger).

It was announced on May 29, 2007 at D5 conference. Initial customers will be in the hospitalitybusinesses, such as restaurants, hotels, retail, public entertainment venues and the military for

tacticaloverviews. The preliminary launch was on April 17, 2008, when Surface became available for

customer use in AT&T stores.

Its a powerful technology that is visually compelling. Surface is a horizontal display on a table-like

form factor that morphs from an ordinary table-top into a new, vibrant way to bring connected

entertainment anddigital content to users. The cool factor is the way you interact with digital content

by using your hands to get what you need. Surface provides effortless interaction with digital content

through natural gestures, touch and physical objects. Because Surface is essentially housed in a table, its

easy for individuals or multiple people to gather around it in a way that feels familiar making

collaboration more powerful and fun.

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HISTORY

The technology behind Surface is called multi touch and has at least a 25- year history, beginning in

1982, with pioneering work being done at the University of Toronto (multi-touch tables) and Bell Labs

(multi touch screen). The product idea for Surface was initially conceptualized in 2001 by Steven

Bathiche of Microsoft Hardware and Andy Wilson of Microsoft Research.

In October 2001, a virtual team was formed with Bathiche and Wilson as key members, to bring the

idea to the next stage of development.

In 2003, the team presented the idea to the Microsoft chairman Bill Gates in a group in a group review.

Later, the virtual team was expanded and a prototypenicknamed T1 was produced within a month.Theprototype was based on an IKEA Table with a hole cut in the top and a sheet of architect vellum used as

a diffuser. The team also developed some applications, including pinball, a photo browser and a video

puzzle.

Over the next year, Microsoft built more than 85 early prototypes for Surface. The final hardware

design was completed in 2005. A similar concept was used in the 2002 science fiction movieMinority

Report. As noted in the DVD commentary, the director Steven Spielberg stated the concept of the device

came from consultation with Microsoft during the making of movie. One of the films technology

consultants associates form MIT later joined Microsoft to work on the Surface project. Surface was

unveiled by Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer on May 30, 2007 at TheWall Street Journals D: All Things

Digital conference in Carlsbad, California. Surface Computing is part of Microsofts Productivity and

Extended Consumer Experiences Group, which is within the entertainment and Devices division. The

first few companies to deploy Surface will include Harrahs Entertainment, Starwood Hotels and

Resorts Worldwide, T-Mobile and a distributor, International Game Technology.

On the April 17, 2008 AT&T became the first retail lo lunch Surface in June 2008 HarrahsEntertainment lunched Microsoft Surface at Rio iBar and Disneyland launched it in Tomorrow-land,

Innovations Dream Home.

OnAugust 13, 2008 Sheraton Hotels introduced Surface in hotel lobbies at 5 locations.

On September 8, 2008 MSNBC began using the surface to work with election maps for the 2008 US

Presidential Election on air. MSNBCs political director, ChuckTodd, was placed at the helm.

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SPECIFICATIONS

At Microsoft's MSDN Conference, Bill Gates told developers of "Maximum" setup the Microsoft Surface

was going to have:

Orientation: Horizontallike a table to allow users to use, share and create experiences together. CPU: Core 2 Duo processor Processor: 1 GHz processor. Installed Memory: 2GB of RAM Hard drive: Yes Graphics Card: 256MB graphics card. Projector: DLP light engine l. Cameras: Five cameras with infrared filters - net resolution of 1280 x 960 Material: The tabletop is acrylic, and its interior frame is powder-coated steel. Surface: Not touch-sensitive surface. When you place or drag a finger, internal projector lights screen

from beneath.

Power Supply: Standard American 110120V power Operating System: The custom software platform runing on Windows Vista

Network Connectivity: Wired Ethernet 10/100 and wireless 802.11 b/g and Bluetooth 2.0connectivity.

Dimensions: 22 inches high, 21 inches deep and 42 inches wide. Weight: 150 poundsOther features:

Drag & Drop: Like any widows Operating system, all items can be dragged and dropped. Automatic Identification: Can identify objects. Place your Digital camera on the surface and you can

see the photos displayed on the surface without actually downloading!

Initial customers: Harrah's Entertainment, Starwood Hotels and Resorts, T-Mobile and IGT. Ideal for: Restaurants, games, shops and Entertainment Microsoft Surface Approximative Price: US$ 10000 Has a custom motherboard form factor about the size of two ATX motherboards

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DESCRIPTION

Fig:-Working of MS

It's not a touch-sensitive screen. Instead, it relies on multiple cameras beneath the table that can seewhen someone touches it. It recognizes objects based on shape or by using domino-style identification

labels on the bottom of the objects.

A projection system and optical technology sit beneath the hard acrylic tabletop screen, which itselfdoesn't contain electronics. Microsoft says it should be durable enough to serve as a restaurant table,

spills and all.

Surface features a touch interface, but it doesn't use a touch screen. Instead, five separate cameras areused to record motion on the table's surface. Ars spoke with Nigel Keam, a member of the Surface

team, about the technology in the device, and he explained that five cameras were needed because of

field angle issues. In order to get the table as low as it is, five cameras are used so that each one can

have a small field of view. That translates into better resolution and speed (measured in pixels/second)

than a single camera with an exceptionally wide-angle view of the table surface. The five cameras are

near-infrared devices, but that's not because they are trying to read heat signatures from fingertips (or

other body parts) on the table. Instead, it's because the entire surface of Surface is bathed in light; by

illuminating the top of the table, the cameras can easily see when things are placed on it. Shining

colored light across the surface of the table would spoil the effect that Microsoft wants, so near-

infrared light is used for invisible illumination.

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APPLICATIONS

Many features available in mobile phones, PCs and other electronic devices like digital cameras arent

even used because the technology is intimidating. Surface computing breaks down those traditional

barriers to technology so that people can interact with all kinds of digital content in a more intuitive,

engaging and efficient manner. Its about technology adapting to the user, rather than the user adapting

to the technology. Bringing this kind of natural user interface innovation to the computing space is what

Microsoft is all about.

In Restaurants

Surface also features the ability to recognize physical objects that have identification tags similar to bar

codes. This means that when a customer simply sets a wine glass on the surface of a table, a restaurant

could provide them with information about the wine theyre ordering, pictures of the vineyard it

came from and suggested food pairings tailored to that evenings menu. The experience could

become completely immersive, letting users access information on the wine-growingregion and even

look at recommended hotels and plan a trip without leaving the table.

Games

Microsoft Surface can be used as a game table. A physics panel is built within the surface which can

recognize physical movements. With this ability, a number of games like solitaire and air hockey can be

play on the surface

Payments through Credit Cards

New applications are being developed for use with Microsoft Surface. Bill payment through credit

cards will be very user friendly and secure. Imagine four of you go to a restaurant and have to pay thebill. If you want to split the bill into three credit cards, you may feel delicate. Generally, it is billed to

one credit card and then others pay cash to the person whose card is used for transaction. With

Microsoft Surface, your bill payments will be easy. Just lay your credit cards on the Microsoft Surface

and drag the items from the bill to the credit card. You may distribute different items to different credit

cards and pay the bills as you want. With this magic of Microsoft Surface, you can pay bills safely and

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securely. There will be many more such applications bringing the magic of Microsoft Surface at many

places in near future.

Recoginition with other Devices

It also recognizes and interacts with devices placed on its surface, so mobile phone users can easily buy

ring tones or change payment plans by placing their handsets on in-store displays, or a group of people

gathered round the table can check out the photos on a digital camera placed on top. Just place a mobile

phone on the Microsoft Surface. The system identifies the same (probably with a special barcode?) and

displays the specifications and prices. You place another mobile phone on the Microsoft

Connection with Digital Cameras

The surface is a touchscreen that can connect with a digital camera wirelessly and automatically

retrieve digital photos and save it to memory. The digital camera may be placed anywhere on the surface

of the display.

Microsofts high-tech Surface table has a nifty feature that lets it communicate with electronic

devices wirelessly and exchange data with them. For example, if you place a digital camera on top of the

Microsoft Surface, the surface can automagically suck out all of the photos in the digital camera and

display them on the table for you (and anyone else nearby) to see. Its pretty rad. Sony is trying to put this

great feature to good use for its wide range of digital cameras by building a smaller version of the Surface

in the form of a touchscreen equipped inkjet printer.

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ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES

Advantages

Intuitive user interaction with natural gestures. Collaborative computing experience. Object Recognition. Mediator between devices. Main disadvantage with this is that its cost is too much for this you have to spend about 5000$ to

10000$ which the general public cant afford. Even Microsoft telling it will require near about 3 to 4

year for home use.

Disadvantages

With the size of this device, the Microsoft Surface may become quite inconvenient, because this wouldmake it hard for people to transport it from one destination to another. Due to it's size, disposing it

would cause big environmental damage, unless if Microsoft, or recycling programs find a more

efficient and environmentally friendly way of disposing this device

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CURRENT USES

Harrah's Entertainment's Las Vegas properties -- notably Caesars Palace and the Rio All-Suite Hotel &Casino -- will use the technology so that guests can reserve concert tickets, review restaurant menus,

go on virtual nightclub tours, or book spa sessions, all while at the dinner table.

Star wood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Microsoft Surface will help create a "new lobby experience."Guest will be able to listen to music and order food or drinks, paying for them by dropping their credit

card on the screen.

The technology will be distributed through International Game Technology, which specializes incomputerized gaming machines.

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CONCLUSION

Surface computing is going to revolutionize everyday lives. Its about technology adapting to the user,

rather than the user adapting to the technology. Once you open it up to applications, what you can

think of is limitless. Some people look at Surface and claim that it does nothing that hasn't been tried

before: computers with touch screens have been around for years and have already found niches in

ATMs, ticket ordering machines, and restaurant point-of-sale devices.

This view largely misses the point of the product. Like most projects, Surface takes existing

technology and presents it in a new way. It isn't simply a touch screen, but more of a touch-grab-

move-slide-resize-and-place-objects-on-top-of-screen and this opens up new possibilities that weren't

there before. Playing with the unit felt a bit like being in the movie Minority Report(in a good way),

but it also felt like a more natural and enjoyable method of doing certain computing tasks. Sharing and

looking at family photos, for example, is more fun on Surface than on any other device. The retailapplications, particularly the dining application, show how businesses could use the technology to

really stand out from competitors, though one wonders how diners will react when their table locks up

and needs a reboot.

Playing with Surface, one gets the sense that although not every computer will work like this

someday, many of them will. More importantly, computers running Surface-like software will end up

in places that never had computers before, and the potential applications are exciting. Imagine a

multiplayer real-time strategy game where you and another human opponent can move units around as

quickly as you can point to them. Or perhaps an educational environment, where university students

could assemble and disassemble anything from molecules to skyscrapers quickly and easily.

While Surface will only appear in a scant few business outlets at first, eventually the technology will

drop enough in price to be offered to home users. The fact that Microsoft is using the accessible XNA

development environment to create Surface applications means that when that time comes, the

collective power of homebrew developers will come up with applications that haven't even been

imagined yet. Personally, I can't wait to see what they come up with.

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REFERENCES

Liz DeBord, Edelman, (206) 268-2210, liz.debord@edelman.com Cindy Roeller, Edelman, (206) 268-2258,cindy.roeller@edelman.com www.surface.com

mailto:cindy.roeller@edelman.commailto:cindy.roeller@edelman.commailto:cindy.roeller@edelman.comhttp://www.surface.com/http://www.surface.com/http://www.surface.com/mailto:cindy.roeller@edelman.com