Tabletop PCs give way to bigger, faster, better, more
Written by admin on April 18th, 2008 in Gadgets and Devices.
In a world desiring “more, quicker” the new Surface Tabletop displays being shown to AT&T customers might be the beginning stages of “just what the PhD ordered”.
A new type of kiosk is being employed, one which allows users to bring a particular product box to the kiosk whereby a bar code reader scans the device and then begins to interact with the customer. Information about the product is displayed and a type of touch-screen navigation is used to go through the data.
The touch-screen simulation is handled by specially mounted cameras which “watch” the user’s motions. When particular motions are detected, it signals the computer that the user has “just touched an option” and navigates from there.
Such kiosks are part of Microsoft’s Surface Technology initiative, whereby this kind of touch-screen ability exists without really having a touch-sensitive surface, but rather is implied through the use of other technologies (such as cameras in this case).
Currently only five stores across the United States have the new kiosks and it is a type of “work in progress” or “test vehicle” program to find out if it’s a good idea, what needs to be changed, etc. Still, it’s one of those technology ideas that, if properly implemented, could be very helpful to consumers while simultaneously reducing the amount of staff required to educate a potential customer on some new fangled device.
Into the future
These kinds of context-aware machines seem to be the future trend for computing devices. It’s part of the focus for Intel’s Terascale project, as well as other low-power multi-core initiatives, each of which have goals designed around “already being there” when you might need something.
Again, we must turn to Minority Report to get a good idea of this future technology. As Mr. Smith walks into a store, the ID system positively identifies him in some passive manner (in Minority Report it was an active look up at the the Eye-Dent cameras), and then a CGI character (probably of the consumer’s choosing) appears and says, “Mr. Smith, how did those pants you got last week work out for you? Did you come back to get the belt you were looking at?”
If you really think about it, such a future is quite scary! It’s like everywhere you go will have a photographic memory of what you did last time. I find that thought potentially very freaky.
Read more at Mercury News.
Tags: gprs, computers, amps, laptops
