SEATTLE (Reuters) -- Microsoft Corp. will unveil a coffee-table- shaped "surface computer" Wednesday in a major step towards co-founder Bill Gates's view of a future where the mouse and keyboard are replaced by more natural interaction using voice, pen and touch.
Microsoft Surface, which has a 30-inch display under a hard-plastic tabletop, allows people to touch and move objects on screen for everything from digital finger painting and jigsaw puzzles to ordering off a virtual menu in a restaurant.
It also recognizes and interacts with devices placed on its surface, so cell phone users can easily buy ringtones or change payment plans by placing their handsets on in-store displays, or a group of people gathered round the table can check out the photos on a digital camera placed on top.
Surface is essentially a Windows Vista PC tucked inside a shiny black table base, topped with a 76cm touch screen in a clear acrylic frame. Five cameras that can sense nearby objects are mounted beneath the screen. 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 barcode labels on top of it.
The company is selling the Surface for between $5,000 and $10,000 each, but aims to bring prices down to consumer levels in three to five years and introduce various shapes and forms.
Microsoft's coffee-table- shaped "surface computer" hopes to one day replace the mouse and keyboard with voice recognition, pen and touch.
Mark Bolger, right, the Director of Marketing
for Microsoft Surface Computing, and Pete Thompson,
Surface Computing General Manager, present "Surface"
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