Saw this pretty (pun kinda intended) new tech from Microsoft in my reader this morning called it’s Microsoft Surface

Apparently, the guys at Redmond have developed a multi touch-based coffee table for home computing needs. Check out the demo videos on the Surface website or the one produced by Popular Mechanics.

iPhone on steroids? Fond fantasies of Minority Report anyone? What is pretty cool about the Popular Mechanics video though, is how they demonstrate transferring photos from one wireless device to another simply by placing them on the table. And notice how the recently taken photo is displayed once the guy put the camera on the table? (Note to self: Must not take naughty pics before visiting people with Surface coffee tables)

Microsoft’s Surface (notice how they like common names for their tech? Windows, Surface? Roof?) is powered by the the multi-touch displays developed by Perceptive Pixel, a company founded by Jeff Han of New York University’s Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences. Apparently, his multi-touch interface was presented in Feb 2006 at the TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) conference.

Check out the video below:

Judging by the way Microsoft has been pushing out all sorts of new tech lately (Popfly, Silverlight, this new Surface and the not-so-new Xbox) it really does seem like they’re trying to diversify their business into the web and appliance industries. Quite a big change from the OS-land that they’ve been living comfortably in all these years. Guess their deal with Novell didn’t turn out so well.

(Speaking of Silverlight, it’s also interesting to note how the splash screen on the Surface page is done in Shockwave/Flash. Not that we can blame them. Guess you can’t do anything without sufficient marketshare eh?)

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