Why Microsoft Surface Took So Long To Deploy

An anonymous reader writes "Nearly a year after all the fanfare unveiling a new touchscreen tabletop interface, Microsoft's Surface computer will finally appear in select AT&T stores later this month. Popular Mechanics tech editor Glenn Derene, who first introduced us to Surface in May, seems to have done a complete 180 in this rant, blasting Microsoft for being more obsessed with Surface's novelty as a magnet for image-conscious partners while messing up a rare hardware device — and, surprisingly, the simple software he was told came with it. From Microsoft's official excuse in the article: 'It's actually been a good thing for us,' Pete Thompson, Microsoft's general manager for Surface, told me. 'We were anticipating that the initial deployments were going to be showcase pilots using our own software applications on units to drive traffic. What our partners have decided is that they want to skip that stage and go to an integrated experience where they build their own applications. That's pulled the timeline until this spring.'"

Re:Expensive?

[nlawalker]

The screen is projected. Multi-touch is enabled through processing images from multiple infrared cameras under the surface. This technique allows for as many touch points as processor power will allow.

Re:Not entirely dissing Surface

[spud603]

Really, if you took a touchscreen laid flat, added a bunch of multi-touch capability and some touch tags for wireless pseudo-plugs, why couldn't this be built by anyone?

done and done [wordpress.com]

Re:civ4

[peragrin]

it is a glass table, a mirror, a projector, and something similar to a wii remote. Add in some software, mostly to allow for multi-touch and your done.

several researchers have been doing this for years. MSFT is just the first big name to commericialize it. other companies have been selling the same thing for years.

Also MSFT's table is useless in brightly lit rooms. It needs a darkened room in order to be seen clearly.

Re:oblig

[Facetious]

This [gizmodo.com] runs Linux, though it is not technically a MikeRoweSoft Surface product.

The product above is Mitsubishi's DiamondTouch screen. The folks who make it have released a Linux-compatible SDK. [merl.com]

Re:civ4

[Spokehedz]

YuGiOh has that crap in the Anime... Oh how I loathe YGO... Damn kids coming in and stealing the cards from the display.

But no, we can't lock them up. Why use the big-empty case where our stock of PS3 stuff was for securing something. Heavens no.

But back on topic... yes. This is entirely possible. Surface can read small barcodes (both 1D and 2D) so just stick a barcode on the back of each card and there you go. Done and done.

Re:civ4

[cicatrix1]

You're probably thinking of the semi-recently released PS3 game Eye of Judgment [playstation.com] that uses an overhead camera to read the cards you place on the game mat.

Only the Haters

[SuperKendall]

What makes your post really funny is that if there's any company which can be accused of "being more obsessed with [its products'] novelty as a magnet for image-conscious [consumers]" than the actual usefulness of the products, it's Apple.

What makes your post even funnier is that only Apple haters think Apple is all about image. The rest of us just enjoy using the products and don't care what you, or anyone else, thinks about our image when doing so.

Only the Apple hater, in my experience, focuses on image over functionality - in that they ignore functionality if a device is *perceived* (by themselves or the like minded, for they are easily brainwashed) to look good.

Almost as hilarious is the insistence that vendor lock-in is a good thing.

Ignorance does not become you. Can you really think of no way in which consumer experience is improved by lock in, even as some technical features (like expandability) are affected for the worse?

You have a different choice matrix than most people, but pretending like your choice matrix is the best for everyone is pretty arrogant.

Build your own...

[minsk]

There are lots of research labs working with low-cost multi-touch-sensitive tables. At this point, one can practically build such a table for a few hundred dollars (plus a computer).

I literally spent today demonstrating my lab's table. An early prototype is shown at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=doK66IYG0Ug [youtube.com], and instructions for building one are at http://open-ftir.sourceforge.net/ [sourceforge.net]. Unfortunately the pictures and video from today's open house are not up yet, but they should be shortly (search for "Equis lab").

There are also lots of free libraries for handling the input. Mine (EquisFTIR) happens to be Windows-only and aimed at Microsoft XNA developers. There are lots of portable ones, often built on Intel's OpenCV library: check out http://nuigroup.com/ [nuigroup.com] for more information.

Couple the table with some object-recognition libraries, and you could probably build yourself a Surface-equivalent with a few hundred dollars and nothing but FOSS.

What is true...

[SuperKendall]

But that doesn't mean that it's not true that Apple is a company that is successful mostly due to image,

Your repetition of something that simply isn't true doesn't make it true, either.

or that most of its products are hardly superlative.

Products are not successful when they are merely superlative. That gets you a little way, but you do not see the kind of share Apple has with iPods and music, without a hefty dose of solid usability behind it. You don't see the huge range of customer types that use the iPod in something that is mere fashion statement. Laptops are following the same path, albeit more slowly.

There is no evidence, and indeed it goes against common sense, that what you say is so. Superficial things are just that - superficial. Apple's success has exceeded the merely superficial.