Technology Speculation II – The Surface

The next technology that I really like is surface computing. Microsoft unveiled the Microsoft Surface computer platform earlier this year. Basically, it was a computer built into a coffee table with a multi-touch touch-screen on the top (multi-touch means more than one finger, or object, can be providing input at once). The multi-touch screen on the current, which is to say first, generation of Surface computers is accomplished via cameras inside the table that watch the surface instead of standard pressure sensitivity. The advantage of visually identifying where things are on a touch the screen instead of feeling them via pressure is that in addition to sensing where the object is, the computer might be able to read an identifying label on the object to know what is. This opens up some interesting possibilities.

Why should I care about a table computer? The reason I dig this technology is it offers the possibility of redefining how we interact with computers. The traditional computer interaction paradigm is for you to sit down at a computer. The monitor is your window into the computer’s world. You are given a keyboard and mouse with which you may interact and manipulate things in your window to the computer’s world. Don’t get me wrong, the system works great, but anyone who has helped a computer illiterate person try and use a computer may appreciate how non-intuitive this paradigm can be.

The surface computer can certainly operate using the traditional paradigm, after all, it’s basically a big table sized monitor. But it offers something more. The surface computer offers a new paradigm that I think can be more intuitive than the old one. The surface computer can act as a magic surface that reveals the secret nature of object placed on it.

For instance, say you place your cell phone on the table. If the surface computer can recognize the object is a cell phone (say through a barcode sticker or RFID chip) then it can attempt to communicate with the cell phone (say through bluetooth). Once the surface computer has connected to the phone it could do a couple of interesting things. It could show you all the contact information on your phone or perhaps have all the pictures you’ve taken on your phone spill out onto the table so that you can sort and organize them. The interaction is basically you place a finger on a picture and drag is where you want it on the surface. By placing two fingers on the picture you can scale or rotate it around. These are more intuitive ways to manipulate objects then trying to figure out how to get a mouse to tell the computer what you want to do. If second or third person placed their phones on the table the contents of their phones would also be revealed and you could start swapping contact info or photos simply by dragging them around the surface and back onto the phone you want them to go on.

You can abstract the phone concept to any electric gadget. I think having the contents of the gadget revealed is a powerful concept. Even more powerful is the basic concept that you’re taking something real and tactile and placing it on the surface to reveal something hidden about it. Let’s think about uses for non-gadgets. Let’s pretend there is some sort of labeling system for items in your pantry. Every time you place an item on your surface it knows what you placed on the surface and reads meta-data associated with it. If you place a can on the surface it may notice that the contents are expired and then draw a big red ring around the can to warn you. Perhaps you place a handful of ingredients on the surface and it starts to recommend dishes you can make using the available ingredients. In this case you really are indirectly interacting with a computer. You’re just moving stuff around your kitchen and gleaning a little extra information that is being provided to you by a computer. Nifty.

Of course, you’re not likely to see a surface computer in your house anytime soon, they’re still pretty expensive. Microsoft is initially pitching them for use in hotels and restaurants or any place where a large interactive communal screen would be handy (of course my line of thought is where is a large interactive screen not handy). The idea is they could be used to show you the menu at a fancy restaurant and you’d be able to order drinks or food directly on the surface of your table. While you’re waiting for your drinks and food the table could show you advertisements or some sort of entertaining content.

Once the cost of technology comes down I expect this concept to take root. The ability to interact with real tactile objects and at the same time interact with their meta-data is a powerful one. I haven’t even started to discuss the promise of board games on a surface computer. The computer could take care of random board construction and enforce rules and scoring without sacrificing the tactile joys of table top gaming. That’s something I’m looking forward to quite a bit.