Surface computer

A surface computer is a computer that interacts with the user through the surface of an ordinary
object, rather than through a monitor and keyboard.

The category was created by Microsoft with Surface (codenamed Milan), the surface computer
from Microsoft which was based entirely on a Multi-Touch interface and using a coffee-table
like design, and was unveiled on 30 May 2007. Users can interact with the machine by touching
or dragging their fingertips and objects such as paintbrushes across the screen, or by setting real-
world items tagged with special bar-code labels on top of it.

The Surface is a horizontal display on a table-like form. Somewhat similar to the iPhone, the
Surface has a screen that can incorporate multiple touches and thus uses them to navigate
multimedia content. Unlike the iPhone, which uses fingers' electrical properties to detect touch,
the Surface utilizes a system of infrared cameras to detect input. Uploading digital files only
requires each object (e.g. a Bluetooth-enabled digital camera) to be placed on the Surface. People
can physically move around the picture across the screen with their hands, or even shrink or
enlarge them. The first units of the Surface will be information kiosks in the Harrah's family of
casinos.

Also receiving units will be T-Mobile, for comparing several cell phones side-by-side, and
Sheraton Hotels and Resorts, which will use Surface to service lobby customers in numerous
ways.[1][2]

The Surface has a 2.0GHz Core 2 Duo processor, 2GB of memory, an off the shelf graphics card,
a scratch-proof spill-proof surface, a DLP projector, and 5 infrared cameras as mentioned above.
However, the expensive components required for the interface also give the Surface a price tag
of between $12,500 to $15,000.