Field Notes Inside an Integrated Communications Agency

I’m sure you’ve all seen the hype about the Microsoft Surface. While at SXSW I had the opportunity to play around with the Surface and attend a panel about natural user interfaces (NUI). The most well known example today is Apple’s iPhone with interactions like flick to scroll and pinch for zooming. When using the demo, I asked about what new interactions we might see moving beyond those on the iPhone. Unfortunately the demonstrator could only pick on the iPhone and didn’t really provide a direct answer to my question. But, he did show us some possible uses and a few utilities that shed some light on its capabilities.

The Surface uses a set of cameras to detect thousands of touch points simultaneously. It has the capability to discern between fingers, whole hands and specially coded objects placed on the Surface. Not only does it allow for multiple touch points, it can serve several users simultaneously. Virtual objects on the Surface can be moved, sized, rotated and spun while expanding. All of these interactions are performed directly with the human hand and feel almost as natural as interacting with tangible objects.

Here’s a video that shows the possibilities of the Microsoft Surface. I’m looking forward to seeing more and more natural interactions come about as this technology grows.