Presented to:Sir, Asim TanvirPresented By:M. Ijaz BhattiRoll No. 033Hamid JavedRoll No. 062Institute of Business AdministrationUniversity of the PunjabContentsIntroduction4What is MS Surface?5 What are multi-touch surfaces?8History8Technical Aspects/Features9 Object recognition10Features10Specifications12 Surface12 Surface 2.012Educational Implications13Relative NETS standards14Implementation Factors15User Instructions15Advantages of multi-touch technology16Disadvantages of multi-touch technology16The future17Applications developement17Conclusion17AbstractThis report will define the concept of Microsoft Surface and its systems. The report will highlight the history of Microsoft Surface. This report explains the implications of Microsoft Surface implementation, from a business perspective with its successes and failures. Companies are inducting this type of technology to grow prospectively and facilitate their customers or clients. Analyzing real life cases of Microsoft Surface implementation can help to understand what can go right and what can go wrong within the Microsoft Surface and how a company will change the way they do business forever.IntroductionMicrosoft Surface , its codename Milan, is a multi-touch product whose manufacturer is Microsoft which is developed as a software and hardware combination technology that allows a user, or multiple users, to manipulate digital content by the use of gesture recognition. This may involve the motion of hands or physical objects which can work effectively. It was announced on May 29, 2007 at D5 conference. Initially targeted customers were the hospitality businesses, such as restaurants, hotels, retail, public entertainment venues and the military for tactical overviews. Its launch was on April 17, 2008, when Surface became available for all customer use in AT&T stores. The Surface was also used by MSNBC when it covered the 2008 US presidential election; and is also used by Disneyland’s future home exhibits, as well as various hotels and casinos. The Surface was also featured in the CBS series CSI (Crime Scene Investigation): Miami and EXTRA! Entertainment news. By March 2009, Microsoft had 120 partners in 11 countries that are developing applications for Surface's interface. On January 6, 2011, Microsoft displayed the latest version of Microsoft Surface at Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2011, simply named Microsoft Surface 2.0, which was built in partnership with Samsung.What MS Surface is?Defined:Microsoft Surface is an interactive table top that can do everything a network computer can do plus more without using many input devices like a keyboard or a mouse. It has four key features: direct interaction, multi-touch ability, multi-user ability, and object recognition. Direct interaction allows user to touch or grab digital information with his hands and use natural gestures to open, grasp, and command virtual objects, pages and images. The multi-touch feature allows the user and enables the Surface to recognize many points of contact simultaneously so you can enlarge an image by touching the opposite corners and dragging them outwards. Along with the multi-touch features, the shape and design of the Surface allows for multi-users at once, therefore, the user sitting across from a user can also be doing something completely different or independent of the first user. The last key feature is object recognition that enables the system to identify physical objects just by putting them on the Surface and to respond by displaying the appropriate software related to that item. Currently, Microsoft Surface technology is being marketed and sold directly to large scale leisure, entertainment and retail companies, such as AT&T in various cities, Rio in Las Vegas, and Sheraton Hotels in various cities. The image below of part of the order form shows the pricing information. Other multi-touch technologies exist such as Jeff Han’s multi-touch wall which has demonstrated similar abilities as the Surface but is larger in size and costs too much, around $100,000 and the SMART multi-touch tables, which has been referred to as “Surface Jr,” coming available next year for somewhere between $7,000 and $8,000. Even though the SMART multi-touch tables are very similar to the Microsoft Surface but two differences are that they are not quite as responsive and have a kid-proof plastic screen as the latest version have.Microsoft Surface is a surface computing platform that responds to natural hand gastures and real world objects like paint brushes. Its structure is like a table and it has a 360-degree user interface, a 30 in (76 cm) reflective surface with a XGA DLP projector underneath the surface which projects an image onto its underside, while five cameras record reflections of infrared light from objects and human fingertips on the surface. The surface is capable of object recognition, objects/fingers orientation recognition and tracking, and is multi-touch and is multi-user. Users can interact with the machine by touching or dragging their fingertips and objects such as paintbrushes across the screen, or by placing and moving placed objects or hands. This paradigm of interacting with computers is known as a natural user interface (NUI).Surface has been optimized to respond to 52 touches simultaneously. During a demo with a reporter, Mark Bolger, the Surface Computing group's marketing director, "dipped" his fingers in an on-screen paint palette, then dragged it across the screen to draw a smiley face and made other shapes. Then he used all the fingers at once to give the face a full head of hair.Using the specially-designed barcode-style, which are termed as Surface tags, on objects, Microsoft Surface can offer a variety of features, for instance automatically offering additional wine choices tailored to the dinner being eaten based on the type of wine set on the Surface, or with a password, offering user authentication.Partner companies used the Surface in their hotels, restaurants, retail stores and casinoes. The Surface is used to choose meals at restaurants, plan vacations and spots to visit from the hotel room to any where they wish. Starwood Hotels plan to allow users to put a credit card on the table to pay for music, books, and other amenities offered at the resort. In AT&T stores, use of the Surface technology includes interactive presentations of plans, coverage, and phone features, in addition to dropping two different phones on the table and having the customers be able to view and compare prices, features, and plans. MSNBC's coverage of the 2008 US presidential election used Surface technology to share with its viewers information and analysis of the race leading up to the election. One of the anchors analyzes polling and election results, views trends and demographic information and explores county maps to ensure voting patterns and predict results, all with the flick of his finger. In some hotels and casinos, users can do many things like they can watch videos, view maps, order drinks, play games, and chat and flirt with people around them and between Surface tables. A commercial Microsoft Surface costs $12,500 per unit, whereas a developer Microsoft Surface unit costs $15,000 only and includes a developer unit, five seats and support.What are multi-touch surfaces?Multi-touch surfaces allow, for a device to recognize, two or more simultaneous touches by many or more than one user. Some of them have the ability to recognize objects by distinguishing between the differences in pressure and temperature of what is placed on the surface. Depending on the size and applications installed in the surface, two or more people can do different or independent applications on the device. Multi-touch computing is the direct manipulation of virtual objects, pages, and images that allows you to swipe, pinch, grab, rotate, type, and command them eliminating the need for a keyboard and a mouse or other input devices like these. Everything can be done with our finger tips.HistoryThe idea for Surface product was initially conceptualized in 2001 by Steven Bathiche of Microsoft Hardware and Andy Wilson of Microsoft Research.In October 2001, DJ Kurlander, Joel Dehlin, Bathiche and Wilson formed a virtual team to bring the idea to the next stage of development and to put some efforts to meterialize the idea.In 2003, the team presented the idea to the Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates with demo, in a group review. Later, the virtual team was enhanced and a prototype with the nicknamed T1 was produced within a month. The prototype was based on an IKEA (ready to use furniture company) table with a hole cut on the top and a sheet of architect vellum used as a diffuser. The team also developed some applications, including pinball, a photo browser and a video puzzle to enhance its features. Over the next years, Microsoft built more than 85 early prototypes for Surface. The final hardware design of the product was completed in 2005.A similar concept was used in the 2002 science fiction movie "Minority Report". As noted in the DVD commentary, the director "Steven Spielberg" stated the concept of the product or device came from consultation with Microsoft during the making of the movie. One of the film's technology consultant's associates from MIT later joined Microsoft to work on the Surface project and joined the team.Surface was disclosed by Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer on May 30, 2007 at "The Wall Street Journal's" 'D: All Things Digital' conference in Carlsbad, California. Surface Computing is a part of Microsoft's Productivity and a master piece and Extended Consumer Experiences Group, which is within the Entertainment & Devices division. The first few companies which deployed Surface will include Harrah's Entertainment, Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, T-Mobile and a distributor, International Game Technology.On April 17, 2008, AT&T became the first retail company to launch Surface technology. In June 2008 Harrah’s Entertainment launched Microsoft Surface technology at Rio iBar and Disneyland launched it in Tomorrowland, Innoventions Dream Home. On August 13, 2008 Sheraton Hotels introduced Surface in their hotel lobbies at 5 locations to facilitate their customers. On September 8th, 2008 MSNBC began using the Surface to work with election maps for the 2008 US Presidential Election live. MSNBC's political director, Chuck Todd, was placed at the helm.Technical Aspects/Features:These all have the same basic framework using cameras to sense objects, hand gestures, and touch ( one or more at a time). The user's input is then processed and displayed on the surface of the table using rear projection. The following is a diagram of the Microsoft Surface and an explanation of the parts. 1) Screen: The Surface has an acrylic tabletop which a diffuser makes capable ofprocessing multiple inputs from multiple users at a time. Objects can also be recognized by their shapes or reading coded tags (bar codes).2) Infrared: Infrared light is projected onto the underside of the diffuser of table. Objects or fingers are visible through the diffuser by series of infrared-sensitive cameras which are positioned underneath the surface of the tabletop to detect.3) CPU – This is similar to a regular desktop. The underlying operating system is a modified version of Microsoft Vista.4) Projector – The Surface uses the same DLP light engine in many rear-projection vs.FeaturesObject recognitionMicrosoft notes four major components to be the most important in Surface's interface: direct interaction, multi-touch contact, a multi-user experience, and object recognition.Direct interaction refers to the user's ability to simply reach out and touch the interface of an application in order to interact with it, without the need for a mouse or keyboard or any other input device. Multi-touch contact refers to the ability to have multiple contact points with an interface, unlike with a mouse, where there is only one cursor and only one touch is responded at a time. Multi-user is a benefit of multi-touch—several people can position themselves on different sides of the surface to interact with an application simultaneously. Object recognition refers to the device's ability to recognize the presence and orientation of tagged objects (bar coded objects) placed on top of it.The technology allows non-digital objects to be used as input devices like hands and brushes. In one example, a normal paint brush was used to make a digital painting in the software. This is made possible by the fact that, in using cameras for input devices, the system does not rely only on the restrictive properties required of conventional touch-screen or touchpad devices such as the capacitance, electrical resistance, or temperature of the tool used.The computer's "vision" is created by a near-infrared with 850-nanometer-wavelength LED (Light emitting Diode) light source aimed at the surface. When an object touches the tabletop surface, the light is reflected to multiple infrared cameras with a net resolution of 1024 x 768, allowing it to sense, and react to items touching the tabletop surface.Surface will ship with basic applications, including photos, music, virtual concierge, and games, that can be customized for the customers convenience.A unique feature of the technology that comes preinstalled with Surface is the pond effect "Attract" application. It is simply a "picture" of water with leaves and rocks within it (a lot like a screen saver used in Windows XP or Vista). By touching the screen, users can create ripples in the water, much like a real stream. Additionally, the pressure of touch alters the size of the ripple created on the surface, and objects placed into the water create a barrier that ripples bounce off, just as they would in real life.SpecificationsSurfaceSurface is a 30-inches (76 in centimetres) display in a table-like form factor, 22 inches (56 centimetres) high, 21 inches (53 in centimetres) deep, and 42 inches (107 in centimetres) wide. The Surface tabletop is acrylic, and its interior frame is powder-coated steel sheet. The software platform runs on a custom version of Windows Vista and has wired Ethernet 10/100, wireless 802.11 b/g, and Bluetooth 2.0 connectivity. The Surface applications are written using either Windows Presentation Foundation or Microsoft XNA technology (not both at one time). At Microsoft's MSDN Conference, Bill Gates told developers of technology of "Maximum" setup the Microsoft Surface was going to have:Intel Core Quad Xeon "Woodcrest" @ 2.66 GHz with a custom motherboard form factor about the size of two ATX motherboards.4GB DDR2-1066 RAM1TB 7200RPM Hard DriveThe discontinued (as of 6 January 2011) commercially available version had the following specifications:Intel Core 2 Duo @ 2.13 GHz2GB DDR2 RAM250GB SATA Hard DriveSurface 2.0Samsung's "SUR4.0 with Microsoft Surface", a third-party production of Microsoft Surface technology dubbed as "The Surface 2.0 Experience" has a 40 in (102 cm) 1080p LCD HD screen, 2.9GHz AMD Athlon II X2 processor, and Radeon HD 6700M. Microsoft Surface is now wall-mountable and running off a new more polished, refined, Windows 7 GUI (Graphical User Interface), now including Windows Phone 7 support.For this version Microsoft created a new technology and named it PixelSense. In this technology the IR sensors are made part of LCD display, which allows the tabletop (surface of the table) to sense, or “see,” what is on top of it without using a camera.Education Implications:• Today’s computers allow you to have multiple applications in multiple windows but they probably only have one keyboard and mouse which means only one person can operate at a time and multiple user can not work altogather . These Surfaces engage the senses, improve collaboration, and empower the students by having everything available to them at their finger tips with variety of features.• Interactive Classrooms: The multi-touch surface computers will encourage the students to interact with content and promoting each other group work and team building skills. • Students would have custom built hardware where they can create their assignments and teachers may be able to see it instantly and help the students where there is required.• Students sitting around the table may open a file, push it across, drag it, modify it, let it to another student to add or delete information and then save the document.• In a photography class, the students can share their images.• In an art class, one student could be painting with a paint brush while another is drawing with her finger on the same time. Both the paint brush and the finger would be recognized by the surface.• In Business classes, specifically accounting subject classes, having access to a computer right at your finger tips will help the students learn faster and comprehend on a higher level I believe. It’s a lot easier to follow along on an Excel spreadsheet when you can highlight the cell and see for yourself and for others, what the formula is or where that amount came from. Allowing students the ability to actively participate while teaching them about constructing a balance sheet will make it easier for the students to not only comprehend the material but also retain the material in my opinion and it will help them in enhancing and expanding their knowledge in an effective way.• In a geography class each student could find a specific location and the maps could be displayed quickly.• Teachers would not have to worry about finding space in a computer lab in order for the students to create projects or conduct research work.• Students could share podcasts or other information related to a certain project that they have saved to their flash drive just by laying the device on the surface and dragging the file.Relative NETS Standards:The following standard is addressed with the use of multi-touch technology:Communication and Collaboration: Students use digital media and environments to communicate and work with collaboration, remaining at a distance, to support individual learning and contribute to the learning of others.Students:a. Interact, collaborate, and publish with peers, experts, or others employing a variety of digital environments and media instantly.b. Communicate information and ideas effectively to multiple learners using a variety of media and formats.c. Develop cultural understanding and global consciousness by engaging with learners of other cultures.d. Contribute to project teams to develop original works or solve problems.The design of the multi-touch technologies appreciates group work and team building activities. It allows four students to sit at it comfortably with one on each side and enables the students to work collaboratively on a project or they can work individually each on a different piece of the project while using the same Surface at the same time.Implementation Factors:Microsoft Surface is a table-like structure with a 30-inch display screen placed on the top or “surface” of the table. The software of this technology runs on Windows Vista and has many type of connection capabilities depending on your needs, such as a regular network card (wired Ethernet 10/100), wireless network card (wireless 802.11 b/g), and Bluetooth card connectivity (used for headphone, printer, etc. connections). As far as technology support, each school would need to hire a full time network administrator on site along with team of additional IT support to manage the all this. The increase in number of users of the surface would need to be addressed prior to implementing these into all classrooms. The ideal situation would be to have “dumb terminals”, like each desk would be a Surface minus the CPU. The information would not be stored local way. The teacher would have the main Surface and the students’ smaller Surfaces would link to the teacher’s surface. The student’s information and data would be stored on the school’s central server so that as they move from class to class they can still access their own information comfortably. For additional software capabilities the school would need to purchase a server license of the product so that any computer connected to that server would have access to the software easily.Advantages of Multi-touch Technology: The administration of a classroom can be improved by reducing the amount of time a teacher spends fulfilling paperwork requirements alone, such as test taking and scoring them. The tests could be included in each student’s desktop and automatically recorded and scored at once.The teacher's desktop, main desktop, could have the ability to look at each student's desktop from their desk and take control of them if necessary. This can be used effectively to assist and to help a student having trouble or to verify that the student is staying on task. Also, teachers would have the ability to send presentations to any or all desktops eliminating the need for print outs and copies of that presentation. A chat system like IM could be set up so that the teacher could send a private note to a student or all the students at a time during a class exercise without bringing attention to the student whether it is positive or negative.If a problem or error occurred on one Surface, that student could move to another student’s desk and work along with them until theirs was fixed.By engaging the students and combining both the audio and visual aspects in every lesson plan, we have a better chance of reaching every student rather than going to individual and increasing the percentage of information retained.Students will be able to work in groups at one desktop Surface collaboratively. This would make the construction of projects easier and comfortable. Also, students will be able to work on class assignments together or help each other and sometimes students are able to learn more and understand in a better way when the information is delivered or reiterated from their peers in a more creative fashion.Disadvantages of Multi-touch Technology: The Surface technology is currently very expensive and just beginning to gain some recognition out in the marketplace. If these tables have the ability to have four students to each one, privacy becomes a really serius issue which will need to be addressed especially during test taking times. Further more, you wouldn’t want one student to be able to reach over and edit, insert, change or delete another student’s work. The issue of personal space and boundaries would need to be resolved.Another big disadvantage would be that if technology is unreliable and if a problem occurred with an application class would be disrupted even if only for a short interval of time.The FutureWhat I would like to see happen in near future is each student’s desk top be replaced by a multi-touch technology similar to the Microsoft Surface. Each classroom and teacher would have their Surface applications customized to fit their specific requirements and curriculum. This type of devices offer various ways of visualizing the information in order to improve understanding which enables our students to excel and broaden their knowledge. I personally feel that we need to find more ways to keep up with the rapidly growing world of technology and integrate it into our school, college and university classrooms or our students are going to surpass us and figure out ways to do things better and faster at home on their own personal computer. With Microsoft Surface the opportunities are countless and endless with the ability to create customize applications for specific businesses, educational purposes, building packaged applications for use across a range of industries and schools.Applications developmentMicrosoft Surface applications can be written in either Windows Presentation Foundation or XNA. The development process is very much like normal Vista development, on the contrary custom WPF controls had to be created by the Surface team due to the unique and different interface of Surface. Developers already proficient and expert in WPF can effectively utilize the SDK to write Surface apps for deployments for the large hotels, casinos, and restaurants.CONCLUSIONMicrosoft Surface is the future of computers.Fundamentally changes the way we interact with technology.Surface takes existing technology and presents it in a new way. It isn't simply a touch screen, but more of a touch-grab-move-slide-resize-and-place-objects-on-top-of-screen, and this opens up new possibilities that weren't there before.