Joe Olsen of Phenomeblue.com talked about designing and developing for the Surface today at SXSW. Some of what he said was picked up in a BBC article.
In particular, he mentions work being done on the next generation Surface platform:
“…Second Light, the Surface 2 will build on the original model and have a second projector inside the table computer that can project images onto a layer above the surface of the screen.”
and it will have:
“…infrared sensors that can interpret gestures and movements without having to touch the screen.”
Of course, you’ll have to wait awhile for this. Actually, I’m waiting for Windows and Surface to solidify on an interaction, sound, and graphics platform. It seems like PCs and devices like the Surface Computer should be working towards a common platform.
Put another way, if Surface wants to add gesture recognition, I’d say it should be added via the .NET platform or whatever to “Windows” proper. It’s one problem–even if there are several devices. They aren’t that far apart.
Not surprisingly there is at least one Surface demo at SXSW. Tony Steward has a pretty good video of a handful of people trying out a Surface table. This isn’t all there is though. Here’s also a quick video by Corvida Raven that showcases one map demo and another Qik video by Chris Calston of Surface at SXSW showing some general Surface interactivity.
Hmmm. Now I’m wishing I’d gone to SXSW. 🙂