Thread: Microsoft demos 'touch Windows'

Microsoft's next operating system (OS) will come with multi-touch features as an alternative to the mouse.
It is hoped the successor will have a better reception than the much-maligned Vista OS, released last year. Scheduled for release in 2010 the new fingertip interface lets users enlarge and shrink photos, trace routes on maps, paint pictures or play the piano.

Full story: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7422924.stm

I was visiting MS offices recently, and they have the "surface" out for people to play with. It's pretty good, though you have to press it a bit harder than I'd like

I hope they don't just shove the Surface interface onto a Vista-like UI. They will have to completely redesign the GUI to do that because most buttons are too small for multitouch. I also hope that PCs with that enables will have a proper onscreen keyboard because going from the keyboard up to a screen is annoying (I know, I have a touchscreen).

They say 2010, that's less than two years away and what I saw there was a simple demo of unfinished programs, not something that's 2 years away from being released.

I'm also fairly sure that Apple will get it done first, Steve Jobs has alluded to them making one several times, although of course Apple doesn't announce anything officially. I'll bet Apple beats Microsoft to multitouch by two years.

Let's not forget that Microsoft already has a touch interface out for Windows Mobile and it's horrible.

If computers start coming out with multitouch interfaces standard, I wonder what that will mean for Linux. The popular distros will have to catch up quickly and redesign their interfaces with larger buttons. Some distros may resist this because their connection with older machines.

I was visiting MS offices recently, and they have the "surface" out for people to play with. It's pretty good, though you have to press it a bit harder than I'd like

You mean it's pressure sensitive? That's absurd, almost every touch interface in the world is heat sensitive. Including every mouse pad and the iPhone.

Touch interface sounds stupid. At first glance it's a neat idea but what woud people think when they see me leaning over my desk and dirtying up my monitor? Now if computers were thought activated... that's a different story.

touch screen is great for mobile devices
(E-Book readers, music players, satellite navigation, et al)

but I don't see it taking off on the desktop
(keyboard & mouse is quicker for most things, plus people's arms get tired very easily)

Remember, touch screens aren't new
they've been tried before - and apart from hand-held devices, pretty much bombed

It's the multi-pointer GUI framework that's new (both for windows & *nix - see here http://lwn.net/Articles/283957/)

I see multi-pointer systems taking off in areas where side-by-side collaboration is needed - particularly schools

but I don't think touch screens will gain much traction on the desktop

I coudl see it being used more by graphic designers etc, and couldd replace the tablet - does have it's advantages I think, but doesn't have a home in everyday PCs

I definitely would like one for doing graphics, I have a touchscreen, but it's not multitouch and requires a stylus. I could see myself using a tablet for web browsing and such (I do it on the iPhone), but things like word processing would be a pain.

Does the M$ Surface make anyone else think of the boss' desk from Tron?

Originally Posted by ninja9578

You mean it's pressure sensitive? That's absurd, almost every touch interface in the world is heat sensitive. Including every mouse pad and the iPhone.

That's how it felt, with the feedback and everything. Just lightly placing your finger on there wasn't enough to be counted as a press. I had to actually press it a bit harder.

While touchscreens at airports and movie theaters are definitely heat-sensitive, this one isn't such a hard surface, so I wouldn't be surprised at all if it is something else.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Touchscreen

As you can see, all kinds of different technologies, many of which rely on some form of pressure. this is also true of Nintendo DS, SmartPhone, and all the other ones that have a plastic "pen" to go with. Those can't be heat sensitive

Yeah for mobile phones and tablets with stylus' a pressure sensitive screen would work, but they shouldn't make a multitouch computer like that (we aren't going to use two stylus')

And it's not like they don't know anything about heat sensitive technology, every laptop in the world has a heat sensitive mouse pad. Try to move your mouse with gloves on, it doesn't work.

Laptop touchpads actually detect capacitance, not heat

As for MS Surface, looks like it's actually using infrared light, and checking for reflections off your fingertips using cameras (which would explain the need for extra pressure, given the graininess of the touch surface).

The surface uses cameras: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multitouch

But my Keyboard(Logitech G15) and Mouse(Logitech G5) retail for over $300... I don't want a touch screen.

<3 Logitech.

lol - I have the DiNovo Edge from Logitech (although broke the Bluetooth and awaiting a replacement) - I love it

I'm a big fan of touch screens and tablets. But I really can't see this taking off. Touch screens have been around forever, and people just aren't interested enough to spend a few hundred extra on a screen with touch capability. And if they won't pay for single touch capability that supports virtually all applications, who in their right mind thinks people will pay many times that price for multitouch screens that don't do anything a single touch screen doesn't unless the applications are specially coded for it?

BTW, I think infrared cameras are a stupid means to a multitouch panel. Capacitive panels are the way to go.

I think capacitive multitouch tech combined with Wacom tablet tech would make an awesome graphics tablet. Imagine the pressure, tilt, and rotation sensing and precision of a Wacom stylus combined with being able to move, rotate, and zoom on your work with just your fingers...

No, I can tell that Microsoft is going to definitely incorporate this into their next operating system. They try their best to stay competitive with Apple and with the success of the iPhone I can see Microsoft being a little paranoid that Apple might be working on putting it into their computers so Microsoft will try and do it first.

Sure they'll put it in the OS, but that doesn't mean anyone will buy the screens to use it.