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Written by Nerd Alert
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Thursday, 15 May 2008 07:37 |
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TouchWall refers to the touch screen hardware setup itself; the corresponding software to run TouchWall, which is built on a standard version of Vista, is called Plex.
TouchWall and Plex are similar to Microsoft Surface, a multi-touch table computer that was introduced in 2007 and which recently became commercially available in select AT&T stores.
In a demo yesterday, though, Microsoft Office Labs GM Chris Pratley and Director of Envisioning Ian Sands said that the two products are completely different. Surface is a multi-touch and vision system that uses cameras to sense what is on the table, where it is and what it is doing. It can determine, for example, if a cell phone is on the table and then interact with the phone in a variety of ways, such as pulling photos off of it.
TouchWall is a fundamentally simpler mechanical system, and is also significantly cheaper to produce. While Surface retails at around $10,000, the hardware to “turn almost anything into a multi-touch interface” for TouchWall is just “hundreds of dollars” says Sands.
TouchWall consists of three infrared lasers that scan a surface. A camera notes when something breaks through the laser line and feeds that information back to the Plex software. Early prototypes, say Pratley and Sands, were made, simply, on a cardboard screen. A projector was used to show the Plex interface on the cardboard, and the system worked fine.
Microsoft is quick to say that they have no current plans to productize and sell TouchWall. But the potential of the system is obvious - Prately spoke animatedly about a future where the computing experience is less monitor/keyboard/mouse and more like an architect’s desk, with user input primarily directly on the screen and via voice commands, with keyboard/mouse type input used more for data entry or office type editing tasks.
Naturally, the Surface would be nicer to have, however $10,000 compared to hundreds of dollars is quite a difference in price, and the Touch Wall doesn't seem too far off for the $. Either way, we're one step closer to "Minority Report".
Vidoes of Microsoft Surface and Microsoft Touchwall in action after the jump. |
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Last Updated ( Thursday, 15 May 2008 08:00 )
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Written by Nerd Alert
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Monday, 12 May 2008 08:25 |
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 Well what once seemed like a long shot, out of nowhere proposal, seems like it just might actually be accepted by Circuit City. Reportedly, Circuit City has solicited the services of Goldman Sachs to help "negotiate the deal". This will make the struggling retailer somebody else's problem. Blockbuster seems to be not only the most interested suitor of Circuit City, but perhaps the only interested party. Why not Best Buy? Well, they have their own problems to worry about, having already turned to Europe to boost sales, since US consumer spending is a bit off from where it used to be.
Now, will acquiring Circuit City save Blockbuster's shakey plane, or send it into a complete nosedive. Only time will tell, though, I think it was to the point where they had to do something. This way, they are in a perfect position to provide people with what to see, but also the equipment on which to see it. It will definitely give them more control over their industry.
There is a picture of a "Blockbuster City" Concept Store from Dallas, after the jump. |
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Written by Nerd Alert
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Thursday, 08 May 2008 10:06 |
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 The Wii's "Nintendo Channel" just went live, giving you a way to both watch trailers of current and upcoming Nintendo games, and feed Nintendo information on what games you play. What's the latter for? So Nintendo can better customize the trailers of games to recommend to you, thus making you buy more games and completing the cycle by feeding THOSE stats back to them. Is it any good? Meh. Finding game information (how many players, whether the nunchuck is supported) is kind of useful.
I had a crazy idea for the Nintendo Wii myself, just hear me out on this. Image if you could actually chat with your friends, in-game, privately. Also, what if you could add your friends by just adding their name once, instead of adding a 12-16 digit number everytime I want to play something new. Maybe we should add some sort of rubik's cube solving captcha to ensure that I'm really a human trying to connect to another human. You suck Nintendo, get your sh*t together and stop making stupid channels. Make something that will make playing your console a little more fun. Oh, and start giving 3rd party developers some training lessons on how to make games for this thing. Every game I have has Mario in the title somewhere. |
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Last Updated ( Thursday, 08 May 2008 10:28 )
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