MICROSOFT SURFACE COMPUTER
INTRODUCTION
For year engineers and
computer technicians have looked for
a better way for people to
communicate with their computer
.keyboards while feeling natural to
many of us has advanced very little
beyond the type writers which have
been around for well over a hundred
years and though the mouse is a stop
above that it still takes practices for
someone who has never used one to
become used to idea of moving the
mouse with it and after years of
using a computer many older people
still have trouble with the concepts of
double clicking, right, ducking,
dragging, dropping and other
techniques that can seem simple to
more advanced computer users.
Computer is usually
defined as the activity of using and
developing computer technology,
computer hardware and software. It
is the computer specific part of
information technology.
Surface computing or
Microsoft surface is multi-touch
product from Microsoft which is
developed as software and hardware
combination technology that allow a
user are multiple user to manipulate
digital content by the use of natural
motions, hand gestures, or physical
objects. Microsoft surface computer
is the in a new category of surface
computing products from Microsoft
that will break down traditional
barriers between people and
technology. It is the next generation
of computer interface these offer
multi touch technology. Unlike most
touch screens, surface computer can
respond to more than one touch at a
time without keyboard or a mouse.
The next generation of computer
interface will be hands on.
Fig: surface computer
1. Screen 2. Infrared 3. C.P.U 4. Projector
Computing curricula 2005
defined computing:
In general way, we can
define computing to mean any goal-
oriented activity requiring,
benefiting from or creating
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computers. Thus , computing
includes designing and building
hardware and software for a wide
range of purposes; processing ,
structuring, and managing various
idnds of information; doing
scientific studies using computer;
marking computer system behave
intelligently; costing and using
communications and entertainment
media; finding and gathering
information relevant to any
particular purpose, and so on. The
list is virtually endless, and the
possibilities are vast.
TIMELINE:
The technology behind
surface is called multi touch and has
at least a 25-years history, beginning
in 1982, with pioneering work being
done at the University of to Toronto
(multi-touch tables) and bell
labs(multi touch screen). The
product idea for surface was initially
conceptualized in 2001 by Steven
bathiche of Microsoft hardware and
Andy Wilson of Microsoft Research.
In October 2001, a
virtual team was formed with
bathiche and Wilson as key
MICROSOFT SURFACE COMPUTER
members, to bring the idea to the
next stage of development.
In 2003, the team
presented the idea to the Microsoft
chairman Bill Gates in Group in a
group review. Tater, the virtual team
was expended and a prototype
nicknamed T1 was produced within
a month.
The prototype was
based on an IKEA Table with a hole
cut in the top and a Shoot of
architect volume used as a diffuser.
The team also developed same
applications. Including pinball, a
photo browser and a video puzzle.
Over the next year,
Microsoft built more than 85 early
prototypes for Surface the Final
hardware design was completed in
2005.
A similar concept was
used in the 2002 science fiction
movie minority Report as nested in
the DVD commentary; the director
Steven Spielberg stated the concept
of the device come from
consultation with Microsoft during
the making of movies. One of the
film’s Technology consultant’s
associates from MIT later joined
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Microsoft to work on the surface
project.
The surface was unveiled by
Microsoft CEO Steven on May 30,
2007 at the Wall street Jamal’s ‘D:All
things Digital conference in Carlsbad,
carifomla. Surface computing is part
of Microsoft productivity and
extended Consumer Experiences
Group, which is with in the
entertainment and Devices Division.
The first few companies to
deploy Surface will Harrah’s
Entertainment, Starwood Hotels and
Resorts Worldwide, T-Mobile and a
distributor, International Game
Technology.
On the April 17, 2008 AT&T
became the first retail to lunch in
June 2008 Harrah’s entertainment
lunched Microsoft Surface at Rio
ibex and Disneyland launched it in
tomorrow-land, Innovations Dream
Home.
On August 13, 2008
Sheraton Hotels introduced Surface
in hotel lobbies at 5 Locations.
On September 8, 2008
MSNBC began using the surface to
MICROSOFT SURFACE COMPUTER
work with election maps for the
2008 US Presidential Election on air.
MSNBC’S political director, chuck
Todd was placed at the helm.
HISTORY:
Beyond the Mouse and
Keyboard:
Surface computing is a major
advancement that moves beyond the
traditional user interface to a more
natural way of interacting with digital
content. Microsoft Surface™,
Microsoft Corp.’s first commercially
available surface computer, breaks
down the traditional barriers
between people and technology to
provide effortless interaction with all
forms of digital content through
natural gestures, touch and physical
objects instead of a mouse and
keyboard. Although customers will be
able to interact with Surface in select
restaurants, hotels, retail
establishments and public
entertainment venues by the end of
the year, the product has been years
in the making at Microsoft.
From P rototype to Product:
The next phase of the development of
Surface focused on continuing the
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 MICROSOFT SURFACE COMPUTER
journey from concept to product. new ideas and technologies for the
Although much of what would later company.
ship as Surface was determined, there
was significant work to be done to
develop a market-ready product that
could be scaled to mass production.
“So much work goes into turning a
prototype into a product that can
handle the strain and stress of
everyday use,” Keam said. “For Fi
instance, when we developed the T1
prototype, it couldn’t be moved g:
without having to recalibrate it. Now,
obviously the product can easily be m
moved. To get Surface to where it is
today, the code had to be rewritten o
from the ground up.” dern surface computer

Hardware Design
By late 2004, the software
development platform of Surface was
well-established and attention turned 2001:Idea of interactive
to the form factor. A number of table that could
different experimental prototypes
were built including “the tub” model, Understand the
which was encased in a rounded
plastic shell, a desk-height model with manipulation of physical
a square top and cloth-covered sides,
and even a bar-height model that pieces.
could be used while standing. After
extensive testing and user research, 2003: 1st prototype
the final hardware design (seen today)
was finalized in 2005. Also in 2005, model named T1 was
Wilson and Bathiche introduced the
concept of surface computing in a
designed.
paper for Gates’ twice-yearly “Think
Week,” a time Gates takes to evaluate

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 MICROSOFT SURFACE COMPUTER

2007: Final structure that took advantage of the unique

ability of Surface to recognize
Table-top device was physical objects placed on the table.
built. The team was also beginning to
realize that surface computing could
Humble Beginnings on an IKEA be applied to a number of different
Table: embodiments and form factors.

In early 2003, the new Consumer Fig: Tabletop computer

Products Group, led by David
Kurlander, presented the idea to Bill
Gates, Microsoft chairman, in a group
review. Gates instantly liked the idea
and encouraged the team to continue
to develop their thinking. The virtual
team expanded, and within a month,
through constant discussion and
What is surface
brainstorming, the first humble
prototype was born and nicknamed computer?
T1. The model was based on an IKEA
table with a hole cut in the top and a
The human touch:
sheet of architect vellum used as a Microsoft Surface puts
diffuser. The evolution of Surface had people in control of their
begun. experiences with technology,
making everyday tasks entraining,
enjoyable and efficient. Imagine
A variety of early applications were ordering a beverage during a meal
also built, including pinball, a photo with just the tap of finer. Imagine
browser and a video puzzle. As more quickly browsing through music and
applications were developed, the dragging favorite sonfs onto
team saw the value of the surface personal playlist by moving a finger
computer beyond simply gaming and access the screen. Imagine creating
began to favor those applications and sending a personal postcard and

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 MICROSOFT SURFACE COMPUTER
vacation pictures instantly to friends advertisement that moves beyond
and family, while still wearing flip- the traditional user interface to a
flops. more natural way of interacting with
information. Surface computing,
Surface also features the ability to
which Microsoft has been working
recognize physical objects that have
on for a number of years, features
identification tags similar to bar
four
access. This means that when a
customer simply sets a wine glass on Key attributes of surface
the surface of a table, a restaurant computer:
could provides them with
information about the wine they are Direct interaction: Users can
ordering . Pictures of vinayance it actually “grab” digital information with
their hands and interact with content
came from and suggested food
through touch andgesture, without the use
parings tiered to the evening’s
of a mouse or keyboard.
menu. The experience could
become completely immersive,
lasting user’s access information on
the wine-growing region and even
look at recommended plan a trip
without leaving the table

Surface computer at Microsoft is an

outgrowth of a collaborative effort
between the Microsoft hardware
and Microsoft research teams, which Fig: Direct interaction
were strut by the opportunity to
create technology that would bridge
the physical and virtual worlds.
What started as a high-level concept
Multi-touch contact: Surface
grew into a prototype and evolved
computing recognizes many points of contact
to today’s market-ready product simultaneously, not just from one finger as with
that will transform the way people a typical touch screen, but up to dozens and
shop, entertain and live. It’s a major dozens of items at once.

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 MICROSOFT SURFACE COMPUTER

Fig: Multi-touch contact

Multi-user experience: The

horizontal form factor makes it easy for
several people to gather around surface
computers together, providing a Fig: Object recognition
collaborative, face-to-face computing
experience.

Fig: Multi-user experience
Object recognition: Users can place
physical objects on the surface to trigger
different types of digital responses,
including the transfer of digital content.
Application
&Development:
Microsoft Surface
applications can be written in
windows Presentation Foundation or
XNA. The development process is
much like normal vista development,
but custom WPF can controls had to
be created by the Surface team due
to the unique interface of Surface.
Development already proficient in
WPF can utilize the SDK to write

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Surface apps for deployments for the
large hotels, casinos, and restaurants.
Windows presentation
foundation:
The windows
presentation foundation (or WPF) is
graphical sub system for rendering
user interface in windows based
application.WPF, initially released as
part of .NET Framework 3.0, is
another step in Microsoft evolving
rich client strategy. Designed to
remove dependencies on the again
GDI subsystem, WPF is built on
DirectX. This provides hardware
acceleration and enables modern UI
features like transparency, gradients
and transforms. WPF provides a
consistent programming model for
building application and provides a
clear separation between the user
interface and the business logic.
WPF also refers a new
markup language, known as XAML
which is an alternative means for
defining UI elements and
relationships with either UI
elements. A WPF application can be
deployed on the desktop or hosted
in a web browser. It also enables rich
MICROSOFT SURFACE COMPUTER
controls, design, and development
of the visual aspects of windows
programs. It aims to unify a number
of application services: User
Interface, 2D and 3DDrawing, fixed
and adaptive document, advanced
typography, vector graphics, raster
graphics, animations, data binding,
audio and videos.
Ø Allow more advanced
graphical features when
compared to windows forms
and its GDI underpinning.
Ø Routing the graphics through
Direct3D allows Windows to
offer some graphics takes to
the C.P.U found on the
computer’s graphics card .this
can reduces the workload on
the computer’s C.P.U. Since
C.P.Us a fast, parallel pixel
processors this also tends to
speed up screen refreshes.
Ø Supports vector-based
graphics, which allows lossless
scaling.
Ø Supports 3D model rendering
and interaction in 2D
applications.
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Ø Interactive 2D contents can be
overlaid on 3D surface,
natively.
XNA:
Microsoft XNA(XNA not Acronymic)
is a set of tools with a managed
runtime environment provided by
Microsoft that facilitates computer
game development
management.XNA attempts to free
game developers from writing
“respective boilerplate node and
bring different aspects of game
production in to a single system.
XNA currently
encompasses.microsoft entire game
development of .NET Compact
Framework 2.0 for Xbox 350
development and .NET Framework
2.0 on windows .it includes an
extensive set of class libraries,
specific to game development, to
promote maximum code reuse
across target platform. The frame
work run on a version of the
common language runtime that is
optimized for gaming to provide a
managed execution environment.
The run time is available for
MICROSOFT SURFACE COMPUTER
windows XP, windows Vista, and
Xbox 350. Since XNA games are
written for the run time, they can
run on any platform that supports
the XNA frame work and minimal or
no modification games that run on
the frame work can technically be
written in any .net compliant
language, but only C# and XNA game
studio express IDE and all version of
visual studio 2005 are officially
supported.
and
XNA frame work thus encapsulates
low-level technological details
involved in coding a game, marking
sure frame work itself taken care of
the differences between XNA build is
a set of game asset pipeline
management tools, which help by
defining, maintaining, debugging,
and optimizing the game asset
pipeline of individual game
development efforts. A game asset
pipeline the process by which game
content, such as textures and 3D
models, are modified to a from
suitable for use by the gaming
engine. XNA Build helps identify the
pipeline dependencies, and also
provides API access to enable further
processing of the dependency data.
The dependency data can be
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 MICROSOFT SURFACE COMPUTER
analyzed to help reduce the size of
game by finding content that is not
actually used. For example, XNA
Build analysis revealed that 40% of
the textures that shipped with were
and could have been emitted.

What surface can do?

For years engineers and computer
ADVANTAGES:
technicians have looked for a better
way for people to communicate with Ø Large surface area to view
their computer. Keyboards while different windows and
feeling natural to many of us has applications.
advanced very little beyond the
Ø Data Manipulation -
typewriter which have been around
Selecting, moving, rotating
for well over a hundred year and
and resizing (manipulating
though the mouse is a step above
objects on the screen is
that it still taken practice for
similar to manipulating
someone who has never used one to
them in the manual world).
become used to the ide of moving
the mouse with it and after years of Ø Quick and easy to use.
using a computer many older people
Ø More Than One User –
still have trouble with the concepts
Several people can orient
of double clicking, right clicking,
themselves on different
dragging, dropping and other
sides of the surface to
techniques that can seem simple to
interact with an application
more advanced computer users.
simultaneously (Max 52
points of touch).
What make it unique
Ø Object Recognition -
Increased functionality

Direct interaction

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Multi-touch
 MICROSOFT SURFACE COMPUTER
aiding user in speed and Ø Microsoft Surface is the
ease of use future of computers.

Ø Time saving by eliminating

Ø Fundamentally changes the
many processes.
way we interact with
technology.

DISADVANTAGES:

Ø Not portable and very Ø Surface takes existing

expensive. technology and presents it in
a new way. It isn't simply a
Ø Privacy - Open for many to
touch screen, but more of a
view.
touch-grab-move-slide-resize-
Ø Screen Visibility - Glare, and-place-objects-on-top-of-
finger prints/dirt and screen and this opens up new
human interaction possibilities that weren't
obscuring interface. there before.

Ø Poor Accuracy - Fat fingers

are not as accurate as a
mouse or stylus.

Ø Fatigue - Reaching across

the table often can cause
the arms to ache.

Ø Objects needs to be tagged

(domino tags or RFIDs).

CONCLUSION:

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