We’ve all seen the Jeff Hann TED talk on his revolutionary multi-touch interface, right?
So I’m hooked when I read this morning all about Microsoft’s new venture – Surface.
Still think you’ll be needing that keyboard and mouse soon?
Microsoft product screen shot(s) reprinted with permission from Microsoft Corporation
Very Minority Report. I love it.
Doug Semple wrote on May 30th, 2007 at 8:22 pm
Same here… I can honestly say it’s the first bit of M$ kit that has got me to go Wow… I want it!
What I find strange is the apparent indecision about what to use it for reported in Forbes. As an educator, I’m looking at it and thinking it’s one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen…full stop.
Could you imagine having pupils arranged round a Surface which had an internet connection and they were working on, for example, a story… finish a paragraph and slide it over to the next person to find an appropriate image… upload the project to your 7th Generation iPod for later editing… and then use the Surface to place your order for school dinner using your smart card… the possibilities are endless…
What gets me is the fact that it’s not really the ’surface’ that’s important, it’s the potential for face to face interaction over the ’surface’ that is truly exciting…
I’m away to give this more thought and a blog post!
Neil Winton wrote on May 31st, 2007 at 10:55 am
This would just be brilliant in classrooms – pupil arrives and sits their iPod/UMPC/phone/Zune (well, it is Microsoft after all!) on the Surface, and hey presto synchronises their files with what they need for class – no cables, no clutter – and no Tom Cruise in sight!
I love the convergence aspect if this technology. The more we can remove the learning curve of ‘how do I work this device’, the better. By removing these obstacles, we get back to technology assisting human interaction – indeed its very purpose?
ab wrote on May 31st, 2007 at 1:18 pm
…and wait until you get a view of Photosynth… imagine the possibilities…
Neil Winton wrote on May 31st, 2007 at 7:02 pm
[...] let me outline a couple of quick ideas for the Surface Classroom (with a very large nod to AB who is equally excited by the [...]
And you thought smartboards were cool... « Mr W’s Blogging Great Thing wrote on May 31st, 2007 at 11:33 pm
