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May 14, 2008

Arrington Gets His Hands On Microsoft TouchWall

Mark Hendrickson

34 comments »

Mike had a chance yesterday to try out the new Microsoft TouchWall, which debuts at the CEO Summit today (more video at that second link).

Watch the vid above to see how it responds to the touch of a new user. Not bad, I’d say, although it does get a bit jittery at times. It’s impressive that all of this is possible with just a few hundred dollars worth of off-the-shelf equipment (and some fancy software, of course).

See CrunchGear for more.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 14th, 2008 at 1:10 pm and is filed under Company & Product Profiles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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Comments

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  1. Crazyglues

    May 14th, 2008 at 1:15 pm

    Wow, pretty cool… I like it, would be cool at places like Starbucks and stuff where people could just play with it, find directions and stuff, watch a video of a new coffee mix, and then try it right there at the store…

    would be amazing to see… out in those kind of places…

    But as far as the home user… hmm.. I don’t know?

  2. Frymaster

    May 14th, 2008 at 1:33 pm

    We heavy-duty media producers can’t get screens big enough. I have the honkin’ 24-in iMac, and I’m drooooooooling with lust at something that big. The crack about switching back to Windows is no joke.

  3. Lon Cohen

    May 14th, 2008 at 1:37 pm

    Very cool. I can see a million uses for this in my home. But I’m kinda silly that way. It’s more of a commercial device at this point. Crazyglues is right about seeing it in a Starbucks. In New York City I see it as a Subway/Street map kind of device with loads of info on touristy kind of stuff. A slightly smaller version would be good for an alternate input device. It’s like sci-fi come to life. This after Microsoft fails to capture Yahoo? I wonder if there are two entirely different philosophies at Microsoft, one for software one for hardware. Hardware seems to be innovative while software wants to buy it’s way to mediocrity.

  4. wisher

    May 14th, 2008 at 1:37 pm

    I think that multi-touch is the next big thing in human-computer interaction. It’s more firendly and even easy to use. I’d like to see how programs will change their interface to support multi-touch devices and acheive better result.

  5. Joel Strellner

    May 14th, 2008 at 1:49 pm

    I can’t wait for this to get into the market and be able to turn my entire desk into a big monitor and combined interface device.

    Just imagine for a second being able to browse the internet and instead of having multiple tabs in Firefox or IE, you can just drag the page to the corner and it sits there waiting for you… Or being able to actually put your hand on a file and drag it to a new location. This is going to be an end-game for the mouse as we know it. And once Microsoft can emulate the current iPhone keyboard, it will be game-over for the keyboard too.

    Both, the keyboard and mouse will still have their uses, but for everyday usage, it won’t be required.

  6. Michael Arrington

    May 14th, 2008 at 2:07 pm

    As I said in the original post, imagine an architect’s desk type setup for your PC instead of today’s monitor/keyboard/mouse setup. awesome.

  7. David Geller

    May 14th, 2008 at 2:13 pm

    Michael said “It would get me to change back from a Mac.” He either has no problem with lactic acid build-up or is too easily impressed.

    I’m wondering how practical a wall-mounted interface like this really is as a daily interface to the things we all do (including Michael, on his mac)? Namely: email, blog writing, web browsing, photo editing and posting? Probably good for the last two and poor for the previous two. How different is this from the work Hann has done at Perceptive Pixel and is in operation every day at CNN?

    I’ll agree with wisher and Joel that it’s cool technology and will be nice to see in future products. We may even see personal versions very soon from Apple, in addition to their iPhone product.

  8. Leonid S. Knyshov

    May 14th, 2008 at 2:17 pm

    The era of sci-fi video walls in every home is coming to reality… Very good. :)

    I can’t wait to implement the original sci-fi visions from my childhood where any wall can be a video wall.

  9. Joel Strellner

    May 14th, 2008 at 2:21 pm

    Oh, and another slightly related note to this new device: this may be the one thing that actually makes me keep my desk clutter free!

    Two birds, one stone…

  10. Garth

    May 14th, 2008 at 2:36 pm

    I’m a researcher in the area of large wall displays. These kinds of displays are generally not meant to compete directly with desktop machines. They are meant to be used in situations such as presentations, brainstorming sessions, and meetings. Basically situations in which you would otherwise be using a whiteboard or a blackboard.

    There has been a lot of work in large display and multi-touch research, summed up nicely by Bill Buxton: http://www.billbuxton.com/multitouchOverview.html

    A couple videos showing fun projects I’ve worked on with large displays:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Su4ZIqxaObo
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ITeaCq1MTI

  11. Prashant Sharma

    May 14th, 2008 at 2:53 pm

    It’s another achievement of MS.
    What used to be a Sci-fi movie prototype is today a reality and will reach masses bcoz it’s a step into the future.
    Kudos to MS. Lucky Mike(I wish i could experience it !)

  12. Loren Feldman

    May 14th, 2008 at 3:13 pm

    Very Impressive 

  13. Jon

    May 14th, 2008 at 3:14 pm

    Microsoft is trailing http://www.perceptivepixel.com/ who developed the displays used by CNN for the election coverage.

  14. Dan Jones

    May 14th, 2008 at 3:18 pm

    So, it’s Microsoft Surface on a wall, right? That makes a lot more sense than a big ass table. It’s been a while since Microsoft did something that made sense. Good for them.

  15. Fabian Schonholz

    May 14th, 2008 at 3:28 pm

    This is awesome. I have never ever owned or even truly used a Windows PC and the only time I was forced to do some programming for it I quit the job. I am a Linux/MAC OSX guy. But … this interface is just too cool and I would STRONGLY consider buying it even though it is Windows. I love my iPhone, but this is what the next iMac should do natively.

  16. Mogilny

    May 14th, 2008 at 4:45 pm

    Many folks have made multi-touch before. It is how the software uses it that really sets the followers and the innovators apart. What MS demoed was kindergarten compared to what others have done.

  17. panefsky

    May 14th, 2008 at 5:56 pm

    “tap something!”,
    “..if you like that color!”
    :)
    this guy was hilarious! Who was he?

  18. James I

    May 14th, 2008 at 6:06 pm

    I’m amazed at how easily impressed everybody is.

    Even Michael was goo-goo eyes (not to mention oddly bendy with his fingers), ready to drop his Mac for an interface that does nothing more than let you browse.

    Multi-Touch is old-school technology. Yes, Multi-Touch has been around since the early 1980s.

    I think it’s really sad that Microsoft has nothing left to show other than what a bunch of guys in the R&D department have been doing with their spare time.

    If anyone is going to win this field it’s going to be Apple:

    * Apple is already the leader in Multi-Touch hardware: iPhone, iPod Touch, MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, MacBook all have Multi-Touch technology in them that interact with OS X.
    * Apple has way more experience with hardware than Microsoft does.
    * Apple purchased FingerWorks, a longtime Multi-Touch hardware pioneer
    * OS X already has a bevy of Multi-Touch-ready effects (CoverFlow, Spring-Loaded folders, Dock animations, Genie effects, Fast User Switching, Spaces, etc.)

    So, anyone who thinks that Apple doesn’t already have its own prototypes that blows this away in their own R&D department is fooling themselves. I’m shocked that Michael was so impressed with Microsoft’s attempt to stage itself as a leader in Multi-Touch technology.

    When you get right down to it, the difference between Microsoft and Apple, is that Apple actually releases its products when it has a big Keynote.

  19. Alan Smithee

    May 14th, 2008 at 6:43 pm

    very “Minority Report” … hopefully they can give it three dimensions - now THAT would be impressive

  20. gregory

    May 14th, 2008 at 9:11 pm

    can’t watch video here in india, too slow, but as an artist i would want to use both hands, throw my body against it, rub it everywhere, with hands, brooms, sticks….

  21. cmess

    May 14th, 2008 at 9:32 pm

    check out http://www.mine-control.com - amazing resemblance in technology (and pre-dating MS by atleast 5 years)??

  22. Vidar Hokstad

    May 15th, 2008 at 3:12 am

    I’d love it for drawing, creating diagrams etc., but that means it’d be useful for me for, what, 2% of my time? Most of the time I hardly even use the touchpad on my laptop, and when I do it does actually have multitouch (Macbook - so I can use it to scroll, for example). If I was doing lots of graphical design, it’d be fantastic, though.

  23. John

    May 15th, 2008 at 4:44 am

    How is this product no different than this…?

    http://www.power2b.net/

  24. Richard Carter

    May 15th, 2008 at 6:09 am

    Very simple to build your own!!

    Jeff Han (perceptive pixel) is really the multitouch guru.

    If you want to start building your own surface computer or touchwall you should up to http://www.nuigroup.org who have loads of tutorials, software and helpfull members on the forums to get you going.

  25. pilo

    May 15th, 2008 at 7:32 am

    @John, The difference is that TouchWall uses cameras, while the other Multi-Touch products out there use touch sensors. So, TouchWall is a pretty cheap alternative. But, it likely lacks some features that the touch-sensor multi-touch products have (like accurate pressure sensitivity). Basically TouchWall is useful for moving sh*t around a big screen.

  26. Sean

    May 15th, 2008 at 11:37 am

    Wow, the coolness factor blows my mind. No more pesky mice to mess around with.

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