Bill Gates will demo a new multi-touch computer and interface today called TouchWall at the Microsoft CEO Summit in Redmond.
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 superficially 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 (see video here).
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 a the system worked fine (I’m trying to get Microsoft to release photos of the cardboard prototype, no luck so far).
The TouchWall system I was able to test yesterday consisted of a PC running Vista and Plex, a 4×6 foot plexiglass screen, a rear projector, a infrared camera and the three infrared lasers. As you can see in the video, it worked, and well:
Sands showed a number of activities in the video – scrolling though mixed media on a desktop with his hands, infinite zooming in and our, playing media, and even using a drawing tool to turn the entire screen into a whiteboard.
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.
TouchWall certainly isn’t the first multi-touch product we’ve seen (see iPhone). In addition to Surface, of course, there are a number of early prototypes emerging in this space. But what Microsoft has done with a few hundred dollars worth of readily available hardware is stunning.
It’s also clear that the only real limit on the screen size is the projector, meaning that entire walls can easily be turned into a multi touch user interface. Scrap those white boards in the office, and make every flat surface into a touch display instead. You might even save some money.
More pictures below:
You should check that one guy who uses the Nintendo Wii as a multi-touch wall using a projector as well. Don’t know the URL anymore, but asking google will certainly spit it out.
That looks amazing!
For just a few hundred dollars I could use one for my living room.
Wow.. a science fiction become reality, hope to see a video on the next update. Thanks!
Very nice indeed. Now, direct input on the screen is only viable for certain situations and applications. If I could only control the screen with gestures from some sort of peripheral pad. In addition to allow gestures, such a device could easily replace the mouse…
I played with this @ TechFest – it’s awesome and feels very natural to interact with. There’s good things coming out of MSR these days!
Why not bring this to market? A cost effective tool like this would be invaluable in the classroom, not to mention gov, institutional and public info. kiosks, like maps, use!
What do they plan to do with it (other than “play HALO”)?
Wow, this is the sort of thing Microsoft should be doing more of. Can you imagine a productized version of this that cost under $500? Every office would have one in under a year, it would be Microsoft’s iPod moment, but for business. Question is whether they could get it out the door with sexy marketing or would it be like that video that showed what the iPod box would have looked like if Microsoft had done it?
Yes, this is the sort of things Microsoft does … Talk about a technology as if they are inventing it making no reference whatsoever to other previous similar work.
As Georges points out, this is exactly the same thing Dr Johnny Lee, a HCI researcher has been doing at CMU with a Wii controler (even cheaper solution)
Grrr it makes me angry
Oh look. An iPhone that requires a hideous, klutzy rear-projected wall. Ugly, expensive, unnecessary, and… Windows! Here comes the eight-track player of the ‘teens.
Heh, that’s a total ripoff from Johnny Chung Lee!
You can do this for 50 bucks, not HUNDREDS of dollars!
(A medium-range projector costs about 500 dollars, so if you would actually want to use this on a wall, it would cost ~550, but you won’t be limited to where you’re working, you could take the projector and the wiimote wherever you wanted, and you could project on a much bigger screen than this thing).
My point is, innovation at Microsoft is the art of ripping off.
Am I missing something here or has the whole world gone mad. It’s a REAR projector. It has to be otherwise you’d cast your shadow as soon as you stood up in front of the screen to interact with it. If it’s REAR, then you can’t turn ANY surface into an interactive display!!! You’d need to dimolish the wall and replace it with a plexiglass screen and have enough depth behind to install all the kit. WTF!
Wow:)
We are waiting for it:) this is the end of math – M$ + Poolicz.pl = http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RhCt4uTmoRI
A pity we cannot see the video, but as Jaime said, I suppose will be very similar to what Johnny Lee did with the Wii some months ago.
Anyway, this technology will become definitively interesting if its final price is available to all customers, that is, far cheaper than what they plan for Surface.
Anybody see what CNN’s Situation Room has been using, an interactive “map” of the US, various states, counties, etc., for illustration of political ideas? Responsive to many types of hand movements over the “wall.”
Al, CNN uses a different product which is called “Magic Wall”, I guess, from Perceptive Pixel. A stripped-down version of it costs about 100,000$, while the one CNN has is loaded with various things.
Well its great thing and will be the nice way for large presentations…
The difference between Johnny Lee and this (other than the specific technologies) are that Johnny’s is a SINGLE touch input (and requires the stylus, which is an infrared reflector essentially). This is a MULTITOUCH input setup. Not that that’s loads more useful, but the differences should be underlined vs. cost.
http://www.thinkgeek.com/computing/input/8193/ to check out a portable laser keyboard. It’s not like we haven’t come up with products like this, they have yet to be marketed to the public. Remember Sega’s color handheld gaming system that came out around the time of the black and white GameBoy? The Sega tanked because of inferior marketing, not product quality. It’s all in the sales pitch.
I imagine that when the e-paper technology evolves further enough to allow for big color screens, we wouldn’t need a projector at all.
The use of the lasers here is a great idea. And when MS doesn’t productize it, somebody else will homebrew style. This is such a lame time. Nobody is hardly releasing anything good. Everybody is in a testing phase.
Why? Because of all the sh*t heads that have patented touch stuff. It’s stifled innovation so that all the people with enough guts to build products have to work around the patents. The industry is at a stand-still in many ways. The other day, MS exemplified it perfectly by stating the low-end laptop requirements for XP one was which it couldn’t be a touchscreen. Not because of capability, but because of stifling innovation.
Johnny Lee’s wiimote is multi-touch if you have multi stylus’s created.
I want a 52inch LCD with a touch screen that I can use as a coffee table, drafting table, that also will fold vertical to a TV against the wall. Somebody probably patented it, won’t build it and is ruining it for everyone. Certain parts of corporations pretty kill innovation. MS is definitely one of them.
This is the future of computers. I can’t wait to use one multi touch computer!!! (I hope soon enough to enjoy it)
@Peter: It is shown as a rear projection setup in the video but if you listen he says it could be used as a front projection…of course there would be a shadow to work around.
As a former teacher I could have used something like this in my classroom but ultimately it would have been very tiring by day’s end. Using a laptop, projector or surface like the old overhead projector is easier as short, quick movements translator into larger effects that an entire class can see without the teacher getting in the way. Some sort of confluence of the two using both technologies would be ideal for teaching.
That’s supposed to be “translate into”. Typo, sorry.
Kris: ’shadow to work around’ is an understatement. You would need to step away from the projection altogether if your audience are to see the whole picture. Moving closer to the source would increase the size of the shadow cast. Anyone who’s ever done a slide show will know what a nightmare this is. (why do the long pointy sticks exist??). Front projection and user interaction are simply not compatible. This is fun but not a solution to any problem. Projection systems are old technology, this is NOT hi-tech. The idea is good but I’m waiting to see a big/cheap LCD (or equivalent) with the same multitouch techno. (FYI, I built my own multitouch table about a year ago now). Rear projection is ok, but you need the space behind.
Your OHP idea sounds spot on. Get yourself a tablet PC and hook it up to a projector. Job done.
i forgot my original point…I object to the title of this article and the way it is presented. It is very misleading. You cannot turn ‘any’ surface into a multitouch screen (as shown in all the vids), because they are all using rear-projection.
Actually if you have ever given a lecture to a large group you know that even a rear projection system like this would prevent the audience from having a full view since you have to stand in front of it to move objects. This would be nearly the same as blocking the image with a shadow effect. Even the person filming this example had to stand to the side to capture the visuals.
You are correct in pointing out the facets of this setup are ‘fun’ but are not going to create a desire for this as a must-have product. The concept may be useful in other arenas such as an interactive information board accessible to visitors in a museum, but it’s not a satisfactory technique for presentations.
A teacher using a traditional whiteboard in a classroom has to step away from the board for the whole class to see it. At least if the image was projected onto the wall, some of the image would be visible to the class on the teacher’s back. I can see bald teachers really having fun with this one.
They should have just checked out e-beam.com — been using and loving this product for years. I don’t often get to pair it up with a rear projection setup, but I have installed it on huge rear-projection televisions and it makes for a really cool rig. Imagine how big a “touch screen” you can build for 10-12k, especially when used as a web conferencing device.
I don’t get why this is such a big deal. Basically, it’s the same as an interactive whiteboard (see SmartBoard, Promethean, Mimio, and dozens of others). The only real difference is that this is multitouch and the interactive whiteboards are single-touch. Is that all the “wow” that this is about?
Also, it states that it only costs “hundreds of dollars”. But if you re-read it, you’ll see that it’s “hundreds of dollars” to produce it, not to buy it. If it costs $500 to produce, you know they won’t sell it for less than $2000. And I don’t understand why M$ would bother to “design” something like this and not market it. Doesn’t make sense to me.
As for the projector shadowing, if you have a ceiling mounted projector (as many school classrooms and business conference rooms do), then the shadow is minimized. Your hand will still cast a shadow as you’re using the board, but it’ll only be the size of your hand, which is the same amount of area already blocked by… your hand. So it doesn’t really matter too much. Having a projector on a table and doing this would produce the full body shadowing that you’re complaining about.
Somebody above was interested in using a tablet to control the screen instead of a mouse, these too already exist. I was looking at one called an InterWrite just the other day. $400 (school cost) each. You can have up to 7 connected to a system so your coworkers/students can participate as well.
About six years ago, I had the opportunity to set up my fifth grade classroom with the technology I chose (within a budget). The InterWrite school pad, a ceiling mount projector, and a document camera were some of my choices. The InterWrite school pad was FABULOUS because it changed the way I could teach. No longer was I bound to the front of the room as required by a chalkboard or a StarBoard. Now I could move around the classroom, interact with my students and still control what was displayed on the screen, whether it was notes, Internet resources, or a video clip. In addition, the pad was easy to use and wireless, so it could be passed to students facilitating their control the display, ability to add information or make their own presentations. When researching this product I saw video clips of European classrooms in which several pads were in operation at the same time. Small groups of students each had a pad and contributed their input on the screen. In my humble opinion, technology tools brought into the classroom should do just what the School Pad does, broaden the ability of the teacher to interact dynamically rather than just reinforce what we’ve always done, which is teach from front and center.
As you can see, I am a big supporter of this technology. So, once in my classroom why did my school district go the way of the much more expensive StarBoard option? One reason was the Blue Tooth technology which the pad used to communicate with the computer. Although technicians came to my building to test interference possibilities and found none, the new wireless phone system the district purchased had the potential for interference so we have the phone system and the StarBoard in every classroom, but not the Interwrite SchoolPad. Go figure….
The immediate application of this is exactly what was shown in the video, a large monitor, not a presentation anything. When they can put the picture into the beams, you’ll have the 3d visualisation that is seen in the movies.
Really fascinating multi touch video. Looks new and cool believe it or not! Check it out!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSDyg_Hxbw0
tamil nathu
read it at technet