A surface computer is a
computer that interacts with the user through the
surface of an ordinary object, rather than through a
monitor,
keyboard,
mouse
A mouse ( : mice) is a small rodent. Characteristically, mice are known to have a pointed snout, small rounded ears, a body-length scaly tail, and a high breeding rate. The best known mouse species is the common house mouse (''Mus musculus' ...
, or other physical
hardware.
The term "surface computer" was first adopted by
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation, multinational technology company, technology corporation producing Software, computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at th ...
for its
PixelSense
Microsoft PixelSense (formerly called Microsoft Surface) was an interactive surface computing platform that allowed one or more people to use and touch real-world objects, and share digital content at the same time. The PixelSense platform consist ...
(codenamed Milan) interactive platform, which was publicly announced on 30 May 2007. Featuring a horizontally-mounted 30-inch display in a
coffee table-like enclosure, users can interact with the machine's
graphical user interface
The GUI ( "UI" by itself is still usually pronounced . or ), graphical user interface, is a form of user interface that allows User (computing), users to Human–computer interaction, interact with electronic devices through graphical icon (comp ...
by
touching or dragging their fingertips and other physical objects such as
paintbrushes across the screen, or by setting real-world items tagged with special bar-code labels on top of it. As an example, uploading digital files only requires each object (e.g. a
Bluetooth
Bluetooth is a short-range wireless technology standard that is used for exchanging data between fixed and mobile devices over short distances and building personal area networks (PANs). In the most widely used mode, transmission power is limit ...
-enabled
digital camera
A digital camera is a camera that captures photographs in digital memory. Most cameras produced today are digital, largely replacing those that capture images on photographic film. Digital cameras are now widely incorporated into mobile devic ...
) to be placed on the unit's display. The resulting pictures can then be moved across the screen, or their sizes and orientation can be adjusted as well.
PixelSense's internal hardware includes a 2.0 GHz
Core 2 Duo processor, 2GB of memory, an off the shelf
graphics card
A graphics card (also called a video card, display card, graphics adapter, VGA card/VGA, video adapter, display adapter, or mistakenly GPU) is an expansion card which generates a feed of output images to a display device, such as a computer mo ...
, a scratch-proof spill-proof surface, a
DLP projector, and five infrared cameras to detect touch, unlike the
iPhone, which uses a
capacitive display. These expensive components resulted in a price tag of between $12,500 to $15,000 for the hardware.
The first PixelSense units were used as
information kiosks in the
Harrah's family of casinos. Other customers were
T-Mobile
T-Mobile is the brand name used by some of the mobile communications subsidiaries of the German telecommunications company Deutsche Telekom AG in the Czech Republic ( T-Mobile Czech Republic), Poland ( T-Mobile Polska), the United States ( T-Mob ...
, for comparing several cell phones side by side, and
Sheraton Hotels and Resorts
Sheraton Hotels and Resorts is an international semi-luxury hotel chain owned by Marriott International. As of June 30, 2020, Sheraton operates 446 hotels with 155,617 rooms globally, including locations in North America, Africa, Asia Pacific, Cen ...
, to service lobby customers in numerous ways.
[{{cite news, url=http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2007/may07/05-29MSSurfacePR.mspx, title=Microsoft Launches New Product Surface Computing Comes to Life in Restaurants, Hotels, Retail Locations and Casino Resorts, publisher=Microsoft, date=29 May 2007, accessdate=2007-06-16] These products were originally branded as "Microsoft Surface", but was renamed "Microsoft PixelSense" on June 18, 2012, after the manufacturer adopted the "
Surface" name for its new series of
tablet PCs.
See also
*
Surface computing
*
Table computer
A table computer, or a table PC, or a tabletop is a device class of a full-featured large-display portable all-in-one computer with an internal battery. It can either be used on a table's top, hence the name, or carried around the house.
Tabl ...
*
TouchLight
*
Jeff Han FTIR
Jeff Han
/ref>
References
External links
Microsoft PixelSense
Computing input devices