PC Pals Forum
Technical Help & Discussion => General Tech Discussion, News & Q&A => Topic started by: Clive on May 16, 2008, 08:45
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Microsoft chairman Bill Gates envisions a future where inexpensive touchscreens will cover the surfaces of homes and offices.
Unveiling Touch Wall, Gates demonstrated a vertical version of Microsoft's Surface technology at the the company's CEO summit.
Introducing the interactive wall as something "new, risky and exciting", Gates said that he expects this technology to be "absolutely pervasive" in the future.
"Our view is that all the surfaces – horizontal surfaces, vertical surfaces – will eventually have an inexpensive screen-display capability and software that sees what you're doing there, so it's completely interactive," he told attendees at the summit.
Standing beside a 4 x 6ft screen, fitted with a camera to detect touch, Gates said that the technology is still at the research-and-development stage, but the company is using components of its interactivity at all levels, adding that he expects this technology to be affordable.
"This kind of whiteboard, with a little bit of hardware advance over the next couple of years, will not be an expensive thing, and that's why we're saying that it will be absolutely pervasive," Gates claimed.
VIDEO (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PimbkQNKzb4)
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Whatever happened to the touchscreen coffee tables he said would revolutionise the way we live?
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They're still trying to make it work. :)
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why dont they just focus on getting an operating system that doesnt need a powerstation in each machine to run it.
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Too simple, Sam - it wouldn't lead to world domination. :)
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true... maybe ASUS have the right idea.. http://www.pc-pals.com/smf/index.php?topic=25199.msg160582#new
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It sounds good, anyone tried it?
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I haven't... but i'm almost tempted to buy a new motherboard so I can
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Go on, Sam, you know you want to. ;D
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lol
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Lizzie is looking at me with the "you and your bloody computers" face again... :woot:
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Sue's developed a resigned look for such occasions. :)
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she had the fun of putting up with me updgrading ubuntu and installing xubuntu onto my eeePc the otherday... I dont think she was pleased!
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That poor girl puts up with a lot. ;D
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oh she got Chinese food, so she was happy.
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She is sooo easily pleased! :laugh:
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oh she is ;D but she wasn't easy to please for bday.. she wanted perfume!!! :dunno: :dunno: she got the pretty armani one, thought I couldn't fail...
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Go on, Sam, you know you want to. ;D
Watch it, Sam, Rik's an expert at spending other people's money! ;D
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Years of practice. ;D
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Whoever said bill sounded like kermit the frog was on to something.
I don't see this as being anything more than a minor convenience. It would go good in an airport terminal or in a mall entrance, but I don't really see more than one or two people using it at a time. Who is going to pay some exuberant amount of money to use one of these for powerpoint. They made this because the coffee table really didn't have a purpose. Now they have the same problem with this.
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i could see it going down really well at conference centres or museums, especially interactive ones.