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Will Surface Be A Revolution? |
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Written by ircmaxell
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Friday, 15 June 2007 |
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Microsoft recently announced their latest product, named Surface. For those of you who haven’t heard, this new computer is actually a coffee table with a multi-touch screen on the top. That's it. No keyboard, no mouse, no USB cables. Just a screen. This latest bit of hardware runs on Microsoft’s newest operating system, (albeit highly modified) Vista. Now, for those of you who have read my works before, you can tell that I am not a Microsoft fan to begin with, but this thing is interesting! If Surface takes off (and not only takes off, but works as well as it needs to), it will change computing forever.
In the old days of computers, there was no mouse. The entire computer was controlled via the keyboard (well, in the OLD days, it was a punch card, but we're not going back that far). When the mouse was introduced, it allowed user interaction to be take from a 1-Dimensional interface (the command line) to a 2-Dimensional interface. Now while Surface is still a 2 dimensional interface, its multi-input technology is a GIANT leap from what is currently used today. Imagine resizing a picture is as easy as touching opposite corners of the picture, and dragging each to where you want them. Forget about menus and keystrokes, simple human interaction. Well, I was kind of understating Surface's inputs when I said no cables. While it does have no exterior cables, what it does have is both Bluetooth and Wifi. So if you put a Bluetooth enabled phone on the screen, Surface will automatically link to it, and let you interact with the phone right from the computer. No windows to change, or configuration. Just place and go! That's the amazing part of this idea, the fact that human interaction is more geared towards productivity, and the in-between steps are cut out. Or so is the promise. As with all new technologies and (as Vista has shown) software, the bugs will be prevalent. With as much automation as Surface promises, you may be backed into buying a Surface compatible cell phone (and digital camera, and printer, and speakers, etc). Time will tell if Surface takes off, or goes the way of BetaMax (Using requirements that end users don't want to deal with). Will Surface link to your Ipod or Iphone (Microsoft has competing products, so why would it make drivers)? As with all innovations of this magnitude, it will either directly change the world, or flop. But if it flops, it will have paved the way for another interface to come in and rethink the way we interact with our silicon counterparts. The system is far from perfect at present (considering the compatibility hurdles it has to go through), but it's got potential to grow into an intuitive interface. Not to mention when the size of the system gets knocked down a little bit from a coffee table to a wall mount LCD. It was once said that we live in exciting times, well if these are exciting times, what else will the future bring us?
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Last Updated ( Friday, 15 June 2007 )
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