Microsoft Surface uses Jet to accelerate demand

This is the third of three blog posts on technologies encountered during my visit to Redmond. This one is on Microsoft Surface. 

(First a note:  although this is about Surface, Microsoft also announced another hot capability called Sphere.  For more on that see the blog of the CTO of Microsoft’s Institute for Advanced Technology in Governments- Lewis Shepherd)

Microsoft Surface is something you may have heard about in the press.  For
those of us who experimented with technologies like the “Touch Table”
from Applied Minds we already have familiarity with the basic concepts. 
You interact with data using your hands.  But there is something dramatically different with the Microsoft Surface. 
The biggest thing is that it is designed from the ground up to work with the rest of the technology stack.  
You need smart programmers and integrators still, but it is easy
for technologists to work with this system so it will very likely
proliferate. 
Many software packages already exist for it, and more are being written all the time. 
It will be used in the National Security space really soon. 
It is just a matter of time before it is.  And its cost will ensure that it is widely used. 

It is far less than the competition. 

A couple other notes on Surface:

– You may have wondered how Microsoft gets those perfectly normal looking people to pose with capabilities like this.   I always thought they just asked members of their workforce to sit down for some photos.  The people of America’s North West are generally a good looking bunch.  But it turns out I was wrong.  The nice lady sitting at this table pretending to do something is Monica Carlson, champion of American Gladiators, where she transforms herself into the supersonic stunner known as Jet. 

– The Surface team keeps a good blog that captures some of the neat things happening with Surface.  Check it out at:  http://blogs.msdn.com/surface/

– There is also a great FAQ on Surface.  The following from the FAQ provides more info on how the magic works:

Surface uses cameras to sense objects, hand gestures and touch.
This user input is then processed and displayed on the surface using
rear projection. Specifically:

• Surface
  uses a rear projection system which displays an image onto the
  underside of a thin diffuser which is the table’s surface. Infrared
  light is also projected onto the underside of the diffuser.
• Objects
  such as fingers are visible through the diffuser by series of
  infrared–sensitive cameras, positioned underneath the surface of the
  tabletop.
• An image processing system processes
  the camera images to detect fingers, custom tags and other objects such
  as paint brushes when touching the display.
• The
  objects recognized with this system are reported to applications
  running in the computer so that they can react to object shapes, 2D bar
  codes (tags), movement and touch.

And a closing thought:  Is this another case of technology following Hollywood?  See my previous post on:  http://www.ctovision.com/2007/10/enterprise-requ.html  for more info.