By:Adam LearnedElijah Redding

-Microsoft Surface- codename ‘Milan’, is a multi-touch display that allows multiple users to interact with digital content at the same time. Preliminary launch was on April 17th, 2008

-The Surface is capable of recognizing hand gestures and real-world objects you set on the Surface.

-The Surface has four distinct features that set it apart from tablets and other touch-screens

-Direct Interaction: Physically interacting with an application without a mouse or keyboard. Hands-on manipulation of content.

-Multi-Touch Contact: Can respond to more then one touch at the same time.

-Multi-User Experience: More then one person can react with an application at the same time.

-Object Recognition: The Surface can recognize the presence and orientation of a tagged device placed on top of it.

-Top surface is made of Acrylic

-Has a 30-inch reflective surface with a DLP projector underneath as the display method.

-Doesn’t use an actual touch-screen but rather implements a near-infrared LED aimed at the surface and four cameras that record reflections of this infrared light from objects and fingertips.

-Using these technologies, the Surface can respond to 52 touches at the same time and utilize non-digital objects such as a paintbrush as an input device.

--Intel Core 2 Duo @ 2.13GHz

--2GB DDR2 RAM

--250GB SATA Hard Drive

--Custom version of Windows

Vista

--10/100 Ethernet

--Wireless 802.11 b/g

--Bluetooth 2.0

-The current commercial version of the Microsoft Surface runs about $12,500

-A developer version with 5 chairs and SDKs comes in at $15,000

-Microsoft believes that the price should drop enough by 2010 to make consumer versions possible.

-Applications for the Surface will be written in Windows Presentation Foundation(WPF), a subsystem for rendering GUI’s, or Microsoft XNA, a set of game development and management tools.

-Development process will be a lot like Windows Vista’s. However, unique WPF controls had to be created to fit the unique interface of the Surface.

-As of March 2009, Microsoft has succeeded in obtaining 120 partners in 11 different countries to create applications for the Surface

Microsoft is trying to do things differently with the Surface hoping to get a wide variety of developers creating applications for it. Some of the applications created and used in the real world are:

Patient Consultation Interface for Texas Health - A demo app that shows how the Surface could be used for consulting patients in health care situations. Video

Sheraton Hotel - Sheraton built an app in collaboration with Microsoft that allows guests to explore a variety of media while learning information about Seattle. Video

Barclay’s Premier Account App – Application built for business purposes allowing customers to interact with their account. Video

MSNBC's Electoral Coverage App – Created for NBC News to allow the news anchor to interact with election results, trends, maps, etc… all on air in real time. Video

Churchend Primary School, United Kingdom - Application made for children in the U.K that could help make learning foreign languages and vocabulary more interactive. Video