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MICROSOFT SURFACE

SUBMITTED TO:

SUBMITTED BY: ANEESH BANSAL CSE A1 11081306

MICROSOFT SURFACE
Vision: Changing the way people interact with computers. Mission: Make the interface between the users and technology more natural. Technology evolves every day and new hardware and software are made available from many manufacturers. Microsoft Surface (Codename: Milan), is a multi-touch product from Microsoft which is developed as a software and hardware combination technology. It allows a user, or multiple users, to manipulate digital content by the use of natural motions, hand gestures, or physical objects. This paradigm of interaction with computers is known as a natural user interface (NUI).

PAST

PRESENT

FUTURE

ORIGIN

Microsoft Surface stemmed from the concepts of Steven Bathiche of Microsoft Hardware and Andy Wilson of Microsoft Research in 2001.

They formed a team and presented the product idea to Bill Gates in 2003. He liked the idea and encouraged more exploration. The team started developing applications such as a pinball game, a photo browser and a video puzzle. About six years later, Microsoft has finally unveiled its Surface Computer. It was launched on May 292007.

SURFACE INTERFACING

Direct interaction: Facility to manage digital information with hand gestures and touch instead on mouse and keyboard. Multi-touch contact: the ability to have multiple contact points with an interface, unlike with a mouse, where there is only one cursor. Multi-user experience: several people can orient themselves on different sides of the surface to interact with an application simultaneously. Object recognition: the device's ability to recognize the presence and orientation of tagged objects placed on top of it. Can identify objects. Place your Digital camera on the surface and you can see the photos displayed on the surface without actually downloading.

REAL LIFE EXAMPLES

Microsoft Surface allows people to sit across in different positions and watch the images. Spread the photos across the Microsoft Surface and any one can pull photos towards them like you pull physical photos, with fingers. Turn them as you like. You can zoom in or zoom out just by pulling the opposite corners of the image with your hands. Can you wait to experience Microsoft Surface? You can even play multiple videos on the surface just by tapping the video file with your finger, like we do now with a mouse! Just place a mobile phone on the Microsoft Surface. The system identifies the same (probably with a special barcode?) and displays the specifications and prices. You place another mobile phone on the Microsoft Surface. The specifications for this are also shown. When you slide the mobile phones together, a comparison of both is shown, to enable you to decide to buy the one that suits you

SPECIFICATIONS
Display Type: 30-inch Flat panel display

Orientation: Horizontal like a table to allow users to use, share and create experiences together. CPU: Core 2 Duo processor Processor: 1 GHz processor. Installed Memory: 2GB of RAM Graphics Card: 256MB graphics card. Projector: DLP light engine like the one used in rear-projection HDTV. Cameras: Five cameras with infrared filters - net resolution of 1280 x 960 Material: The tabletop is acrylic, and its interior frame is powder-coated steel. Surface: Not touch-sensitive surface. When you place or drag a finger, internal projector lights screen from beneath. Power Supply: Standard American 110120V power Operating System: The custom software platform running on Windows Vista Network Connectivity: Wired Ethernet 10/100 and wireless 802.11 b/g and Bluetooth 2.0 connectivity. Dimensions: 22 inches high, 21 inches deep and 42 inches wide. Weight: 150 pounds Initial customers: Harrah's Entertainment, Starwood Hotels and Resorts, TMobile and IGT, the gaming technology company. Microsoft says consumer availability is still a few years away.

COMPONENTS

Screen:

A diffuser turns the Surface's acrylic tabletop into a large horizontal "multitouch" screen, capable of processing multiple inputs from multiple users. The Surface can also recognize objects by their shapes or by reading coded "domino" tags.

Infrared:

Surface's "machine vision" operates in the near-infrared spectrum, using an 850-nanometer-wavelength LED light source aimed at the screen. When objects touch the tabletop, the light reflects back and is picked up by multiple infrared cameras with a net resolution of 1280 x 960.

CPU:

Surface uses many of the same components found in everyday desktop computers a Core 2 Duo processor, 2GB of RAM and a 256MB graphics card . Wireless communication with devices on the surface is handled using Wi-Fi and Bluetooth antennas (future versions may incorporate

RFID or Near Field Communications). The underlying operating system is a modified version of Microsoft Vista.

Projector:

Microsoft's Surface uses the same DLP light engine found in many rear-projection HDTVs. The footprint of the visible light screen, at 1024 x 768 pixels, is actually smaller than the invisible overlapping infrared projection to allow for better recognition at the edges of the screen.

WORKING
Surface is a 30 inch display in a table like form factor that small group can use at a same time. One of the key components of surface computing is a multitouch screen which accepts input from multiple fingers and multiple users simultaneously, allowing for complex gestures, including grabbing, stretching, swiveling and sliding virtual objects across the table.

Multi touch screen:

Touch sensing is common place for single points of contact, multi-touch sensing enables a user to interact with a system with more than one finger at a time. Such sensing devices are inherently also able to accommodate multiple users simultaneously, which is especially useful for larger interaction scenarios such as interactive walls and tabletops. The FTIR (frustrated total internal reflection) sensing technique is used. This technique is force-sensitive, and provides unprecedented resolution and scalability, allow to create sophisticated multi-point widgets for applications large enough to accommodate both hands and multiple users.

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Basic components of multitouch screen are:

1.

Touch Screen Sensor:

A touch screen sensor is a glass plate having touch responsive surface. The touch sensor is positioned over a display screen so that the responsive area of the plate covers the maximum viewable area of the video screen. There are number of touch sensor technologies available in the market today, each using a different approach to detect touch input. The sensor has an electrical current or signal passing through it and touching the screen causes change in voltage or signal. This voltage or signal change is used to find out the location of the touch to the screen.

2 Controller:
The controller used in touch screen is a small PC card that interconnects between the touch sensor and the PC. Controller takes data from the touch sensor and converts it into information that PC can understand. The controller is useful to determine what type of interface/connection you will need on the PC. Integrated touch monitors are provided with an extra cable connection on the back for the touch screen. Controllers are available by connecting to a Serial/COM port (PC) or to a USB port (PC or Macintosh).

3 Software Driver:
The driver is software for the PC system that permits the touch screen and computer to work together. It tells operating system of computer how to interpret the touch event information that is sent from the controller. Todays touch screen drivers are a mouse-emulation type driver. This makes touching the screen the same as clicking your mouse at the same location on the screen. This permits the touch screen to work with existing software and provide new applications to be developed without the need for touch screen specific programming. Some devices such as thin client

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terminals, DVD players and specialized computer systems either do not use software drivers or they have their own in -built touch screen driver.

4 Object recognition:
Surface also features the ability to recognize physical objects that have identification tags similar to bar codes. Thus there is no requirement of cables and external ports for plugging in peripherals.

OBJECT RECOGNITION
When
objects touches the tabletop, the light reflects back and is picked up by multiple infrared cameras, sensor trigger the camera to take a picture of the part as it passes beneath the camera and often synchronizes a lighting pulse to freeze a sharp image. The cameras image is captured by the Frame grabber which converts the output of the camera to digital format(typically a two dimensional array of numbers, corresponding to the luminous intensity level of corresponding point in the field of view, called pixel)and places the image in computers memory so that it may be recognized by machine vision software. The software will typically take several steps to process an image. Often the image is

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first manipulated to reduce noise or undergoes binarisation to identify the object. The surface itself isn't touch-sensitive, but a series of cameras inside the table can see when someone places or drags a finger, hand or any other object on or across the tabletop screen. Internal projector lights screen from beneath. Surface has been optimized to respond to 52 touches at a time. Surface features a touch interface, but it doesn't use a touch screen. Instead, five separate cameras are used to record motion on the table's surface. Five cameras were needed because of field angle issues. In order to get the table as low as it is, five cameras are used so that each one can have a small field of view. That translates into better resolution and speed (measured in pixels/second) than a single camera with an exceptionally wide-angle view of the table surface. The five cameras are nearinfrared devices, by illuminating the top of the table; the cameras can easily see when things are placed on it. Shining colored light across the surface of the table would spoil the effect that Microsoft wants, so near-infrared light is used for invisible illumination. Those cameras, which are located below the acrylic surface of the table, can read a nearly infinite number of simultaneous touches, and are limited only by processing power. These cameras position the actual devices in the "Surface's" internal memory while the relative positioning is constantly changing and re-dimensioning. The infrared is instrumental in picking up hand-gestures and the display auto adjusts brightness to ambient room lighting. Aspects of the glass surface allow certain light frequencies to pass in one direction but not others.

In addition to recognizing fingers, Surface can recognize inanimate objects. Microsoft has developed a 3/4" square tag called a "domino" that can be attached to objects so that Surface can interact with them on the fly. Instead of relying on RFID, the domino tag uses dots to encode its information .its a one-byte data tag. Microsoft surface uses a rear projection system which displays the image on the underside of a thin diffuser. Objects such as fingers are visible through the diffuser by a series of infra-red sensitive cameras, positioned underneath the display. An image processing system processes the camera images to detect fingers, custom tags and other objects.

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The objects recognized by this system are reported to applications running in the computer so that they can react to object shapes, tags, movements and touch. The controller used in touch screen is a small PC card that interconnects between the touch sensor and the PC. Controller takes data from the touch sensor and converts it into information that PC can understand.

FUTURE APPLICATIONS
Presently its use is limited to GAMING TECHNOLOGY, HOTELS, and CASINOS etc. With commercialization: Microsoft Surface will replace the conference room table. It has the potential to be a good learning tool for children with disabilities who may not be able to use a keyboard/mouse as easily.

For desktop publishing it would be phenomenal to be able to move clips around the way you do now to create a physical mockup, and then print it.

It may not be a distant dream where the teachers may have a Microsoft Surface to teach the students. Students may have a custom built hardware

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where they can create their assignments. They place these special devices on the Microsoft Surface. The teacher may see the assignment instantly and help the student. With this kind of possibilities of Microsoft Surface, learning could become fun.