http://blog.scifi.com/tech/archives/2007/05/30/microsoft_surfa.html

heath

Pretty interesting technology. I wonder how well devices will work with the table if they don't have a Sony logo on them.

Seen it before, partially similar to my old technology (older than the Apple touch screen technology patent too). This variation is nice. I want one, that I can flip up into an normal screen, or tilt into an work surface too. Something I have been wanting for an very long time.

This marks an revolution in machine operation, I like the interface, different from my own plans, but innovative, easy, in future we might see this in many professional workplaces, as well as fro public use. Love it.

Onto how good it might be. I was in an store yesterday, and there was an rear projection, Samsung or LG, I forget, rear projection 50 inch HDTV. It was beautiful, when I walked in it looked like an advanced LCD panel, with little of the problems of more primitive rear projection TVs. I have read about these technologies years ago, and waited for them to come out but this is the first one I have seen in person. High contrast, black blacks, with good visibility and little hot spot approaching desktop distance, and much better off center ability. Of course, it still doesn't compete for desktop viewing distance, but I think the technologies I remember can do this at the distance required for the surface with wide off centre and practically no hot spotting.

Rear projection is not the only method for this though.

For document editing you can have many pages and documents open at once for cross editing and reference, for drafting it is amazing, and digital drafting board for drafting, design and 3D, for multimedia for everything else.

Bill Gates in Minority Report...