Microsoft "Surface"...Here is the "Wow!"
 

There is a video of some guy playing with one of those on YouTube a few months ago. I don't think it was Microsoft though.

Excellent, thanks for saving me the trouble of looking for it. http://www.discussworldissues.com/fo...lies/smile.gif

So the real question is, did Microsoft license this technology or just totally rip it off?

Yeah, they pretty much ripped it off. The tech has been around since at least 2003. Not that it matters.

I have seen something very similar done by Nintendo, and showed at a gaming convention (e3)

The project I was thinking of was already in a museum by 2003...I suspect it was around before 2001, too. Like I said though, doesn't matter. MIT's tangible media group has done some really interesting work in the area. My reaction to this is the same as my reaction to their work...interesting, but ultimately a niche product in its current state. It lacks any kind of tactile response, which is more important to humans than it sounds and kills the idea as a general input device. The only time I've seen it work is when voice recognition is used for most input and the 'table' is used the way you would use a mouse now.

Has Gates become the 'Willy Wonka' of computer tech?

Isn't this the very beginning of the holodeck? Like why not just make a whole room or house with integrated 'Surface' walls and ceilings? Redecorating would be much simpler, and kids would finally be allowed to draw on the wall.

Originally posted by bipolarbear
Isn't this the very beginning of the holodeck? Like why not just make a whole room or house with integrated 'Surface' walls and ceilings? Redecorating would be much simpler, and kids would finally be allowed to draw on the wall. So you'd have, what, pictures of cyber-babes whose boobs you could pull on and make bigger?

or: "Hey look! I've made Oprah skinny!"

GREAT, ANOTHER STUPID COMMENT I DIDN'T NEED TO READ. I'M NOT MAKING MYSELF ANY SMARTER THANK YOU VERY MUCH.

I look for insight or amusement. Your posts annoy me greatly. You remind me of a little girl without her doll.

You never post anything other than dreadful, never-ending whinefest posts.

Or anyone else's, apparently.

Go get lost in the Australian outback.

Go step on a stingray!!!