No Microsoft Surface available, then simply bring your own.

It has been published in at many websites but I like the ZDNet one most so here it is

It looks like Microsoft has finally figured out how to turn its table-sized multi-touch Surface computer into a more portable experience.



Microsoft is planning to demonstrate this week at its employee-only Microsoft Research showcase in Redmond a project it is calling the “Mobile Surface.” (Microsoft is briefing a few select press on some of its TechFest projects before the event begins. I wasn’t briefed; I just found the link for this while trolling around on the Microsoft Research site.)

From a description of the Mobile Surface on the company’s Microsoft Research (MSR) Web site:


“Our goal is to bring Microsoft Surface experience to mobile scenarios, and more importantly, to enable 3D interaction with mobile devices. We do research on how to transform any surface (e.g., a coffee table or a piece of paper) to Mobile Surface with a mobile device and a camera-projector system. Besides this, our work also includes how to get 3D object model in real-time, augmented reality and multiple-layer 3D information presentation.”


Microsoft has been working on a variety of Surface-like projects, including the rumored “Oahu” multi-touch table (which would be smaller and cheaper than the Surface) and the Courier book-style tablet. Courier is thought to be in the incubation phase at this point, although the final product may look little like the screen shots and video images that leaked last fall. Last I heard, Courier is unlikely to debut in commercial form until 2011 at the earliest.


Natural user interface (NUI) technology, in general,is going to be a big emphasis at TechFest, based on some of the early information coming from Microsoft’s briefings.


One project I haven’t yet seen mentioned (but which I found on Microsoft’s Research site as one of its TechFest 2010 demos) marries NUIs, tablets and touch. That effort, known as “Project Gustav,” is an “immersive digital painting” research project, as Microsoft’s Web site describes it. More on Gustav from the Microsoft site:


“The natural interface makes Project Gustav ideal for hobbyists and professional artists alike. Project Gustav achieves a high level of interactivity and realism by leveraging the computing power of modern GPUs, taking full advantage of multitouch and tablet input technology and our novel, natural media-modeling and brush-simulation algorithms.”


Update: I thought the whole Mobile Surface concept sounded kind of familiar. It probably has its roots in the Microsoft Research “PlayAnywhere” project on which developers have been working since some time before 2007. (PlayTable, which is related to PlayAnywhere, evolved to become Microsoft’s Surface.)

multi touch cafe or hard rock cafe......that's the touch

Hardrock cafe announced this press release and when watching the video, I have to admit it's a pretty cool thing. Hope they will do this in other hardrock cafes as well since I don't travel that much to vegas.



FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
9/3/2009

HARD ROCK TO OPEN NEW FLAGSHIP CAFE ON VEGAS STRIP
Cafe to Unveil Innovative Memorabilia Interactive Technology

Orlando, Fla., September 3, 2009 – Hard Rock International is proud to announce the opening of the new Hard Rock Cafe Las Vegas on September 5, 2009. Hard Rock Cafe Las Vegas is located at 3771 Las Vegas Boulevard South, anchoring the Showcase Mall development at the heart of the world-famous Las Vegas Strip.

Sure to contend as one of the city’s premier dining and entertainment destinations, the 42,000-square foot flagship cafe features a 950-seat restaurant, live concert venue and the world’s largest Rock Shop complete with Hard Rock’s limited-edition merchandise. This is Hard Rock’s second cafe location in the Las Vegas market. The original Hard Rock Cafe Las Vegas at Hard Rock Hotel, located at 4475 Paradise Rd., remains open and will continue to provide Rock Star service for guests.

Hard Rock welcomes back former staff members and new local talent to the team at the new location on Las Vegas Blvd. Leading the team will be General Manager Greg Thomas, who has been successfully helming the original Las Vegas cafe for a number of years. The experienced Sales & Marketing Management team of Peter Lin and Diana Webber will also join Greg as members of the veteran staff. New additions to the Vegas management team include Marketing Manager Paula Pettit, Sales and Marketing Manager Cristina Baumann and Special Events Manager Andrew Courtney, who collectively will oversee all event, sales and marketing activities for the new cafe.

"We could not be more thrilled to welcome guests to our brand new location on the Las Vegas Strip," said Greg Thomas, Operations General Manager for Hard Rock Cafe Las Vegas. "Our three-story location, complete with live venue and one-of-a-kind technology, will be sure to deliver a kick-ass guest experience that rocks!"

New Look ~ New Tech ~ New Vibe
In addition, the authentic memorabilia collection of Hard Rock will be showcased via innovative multimedia technology. The new Las Vegas cafe is the marquee location for new unique interactive experiences for guests – from right in their booth to throughout the Cafe with Microsoft Surface™ and the Rock Wall™ featuring multi-touch technology enabling fans to explore the world’s greatest rock ‘n’ roll memorabilia collection and virtually tour all of the company’s 156 venues around the world.

• Rock Wall™:
  The largest item of the interactive suite is Hard Rock Cafe Las Vegas’ one-of-a-kind Rock Wall™. Hard Rock partnered with Technomedia Systems and Obscura Digital on this venture to create an 18-foot wide by 4-foot tall interactive touch wall. This technology will also highlight Hard Rock’s unparalleled memorabilia collection on a grand scale. A guest can access and expand a single image or video to be as large as the wall itself; or up to six guests can explore their own collections in dynamic "zones" simultaneously. Crafted from a single sheet of Stewart film glass, this interactive touch screen is custom made for this Hard Rock venue. The technology behind the installation are almost as impressive as the incredible graphics of the multi-touch interface and user experience that will surely be a focal part of the cafe’s unique allure.
• Microsoft Surface:
  The new Las Vegas cafe will utilize Microsoft Surface, providing a 360-degree, multi-user interface that uses cameras to sense objects, touch and hand gestures on the 30-inch display. Hard Rock and Vertigo collaborated to create several custom applications for use on the Microsoft Surface platform. A key feature is the worldwide memorabilia application that allows the guest to locate Hard Rock properties from around the world, explore images of both the exterior and interior of the building, then deep-zoom into the iconic memorabilia items housed within those walls. Deep zoom was previously showcased via Hard Rock’s Memorabilia 2.0 online portal. This application also grants users the ability to pivot from one collection to another, using categories such as artist, year, genre, and type. Guests can also expect many other custom applications via Microsoft Surface designed to showcase Hard Rock's unique content.
• Booth Interactive:
  The 19" touch screen runs on a Microsoft Windows software platform and utilizes a Vertigo-written application, allowing guests to interact deeply with Hard Rock’s world-famous collection. From "Deep Zoom" functionality to background information on the pieces themselves, the technology grants access to a catalogue of more than 1,000 unique memorabilia items. Guests can also plug in to the in-house music video system to cast their vote on the next song, and explore Hard Rock memorabilia related to those artists. Marquee Rock Shop merchandise items will also be accessible for browsing as part of this interface.

"Microsoft Surface is excited to help connect Hard Rock Cafe guests with rock legend memorabilia in a new and interactive way," said Matt Champagne, Director of Marketing for Microsoft Surface. "At Hard Rock, patrons will be able to have fun with Microsoft Surface and get hands on exploring Hard Rock venues around the world - bringing them face to face with the records, clothing and instruments of music legends they love."

"We were excited to work with Hard Rock on this revolutionary project," said Obscura Digital CEO Patrick Connolly. "This is the longest, largest and most technologically sophisticated multi-touch wall we’ve built. It utilizes our newest Fireframe technology, and the result is the highest resolution, seamless multi-touch display we have ever seen. We are delivering a 6000 x 1000 pixel display, so that multiple users at a time can enjoy the vast Hard Rock Memorabilia collection in stunningly high resolution. With this display, customers can literally zoom so deep into the images, that things like a scratch on Buddy Holly's glasses can be seen 3 feet wide. The graphic quality of this system is something the public has never seen, and the impact on the customers is something they will not soon forget."

For more than 38 years, Hard Rock Cafe has offered guests classic American fare in a rock ‘n’ roll atmosphere. Hard Rock Cafe Las Vegas features a hardwood smoker, which uses the very best Hickory wood chips to slowly cook Hard Rock’s classic ribs, chicken and pork to perfection. Hard Rock’s Legendary Experience menu is just that – legendary – offering six different mouth-watering Legendary Burgers made from Certified Angus Beef. In addition to its food, Hard Rock offers unmatched specialty drinks from its award-winning bar menu, from Hurricanes and Margaritas, to its Alternative Rock non-alcoholic beverage menu featuring favorites like Wildberry Smoothies and Crushed Velvet "martinis."

The Rock Shop offers an exclusive line of authentic Hard Rock Cafe items, including Hard Rock’s famous Classic and City T-shirts, as well as highly coveted accessories and pins, which reflect the spirit of the city and the authenticity of Hard Rock’s merchandise. New Hard Rock Cafe Las Vegas limited-edition and city-specific merchandise is now available on site.

About Obscura Digital
Located in a 30,000 square foot warehouse in San Francisco, Obscura Digital is a creative technology agency specializing in immersive brand experiences that are both visually stunning and highly interactive. Based on its proprietary software and hardware systems, Obscura can turn any surface, any size and shape into a canvas for high resolution and interactive media that may be triggered through gesture, touch, movement and mobile technology. Obscura’s industry-leading creative and technology work for top brands worldwide delivering 360-degree video domes, large-scale building projection and multi-touch screens, earned them a spot on Fast Company magazine’s "Top Ten Most Innovative Companies in Advertising & Marketing in 2009." For more information, visit www.obscuradigital.com.

About Hard Rock International
With a total of 156 venues in 52 countries, including 127 cafes and 11 Hotels/Casinos, Hard Rock International is one of the world's most globally recognized brands. Beginning with an Eric Clapton guitar, Hard Rock owns the world's greatest collection of music memorabilia, which is displayed at its locations around the globe. Hard Rock is also known for its collectible fashion and music-related merchandise, Hard Rock Live performance venues and an award-winning website. In addition to the two flagship Seminole Hard Rock Hotels and Casinos in Tampa and Hollywood, Fla., Hard Rock Hotels/Casinos are located in Las Vegas, Biloxi, Orlando, Chicago, San Diego, Tulsa, Pattaya, Bali and Macau. Additional hotel and casino projects have been announced in Penang, scheduled to open in 2009; Singapore in 2010; Palm Springs, Atlanta and Panama, scheduled to open in 2011; Hungary, Dubai and Abu Dhabi, scheduled to open in 2012. Hard Rock International is owned by Seminole Hard Rock Entertainment, Inc. For further details on Hard Rock Hotels and Casinos, visit www.hardrockhotels.com. For more information on Hard Rock International, visit www.hardrock.com.

how to manage your house the easy way - Experimental Tech Turns Your Coffee Table Into a Universal Remote

Just read an incredible great concept at wired.com and it's not some futuristic thing you need to wait for, actually they already created it and although it might not be very cheap it's great

Stock up on coasters. A new technology combines the coffee table with a universal remote so that people sitting around the table can tap on a screen to change the channel, turn up the volume or dim the lights.

CRISTAL (Control of Remotely Interfaced Systems using Touch-based Actions in Living spaces) is a research project in user interface that attempts to create a natural way of connecting with devices. The system offers a streaming video view of the living room on a tabletop, so users can can walk up to it, see the layout of the room and interact with the TV or the photo frame.

“We wanted a social aspect to activities such as choosing what to watch on TV and we wanted to make the process easy and intuitive,” says Stacey Scott, assistant professor at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada, and a member of the project. A demo of CRISTAL was shown at the Siggraph graphics conference earlier this month.

The idea isn’t completely novel. Microsoft showed off Surface, a multitouch display in 2008 that allows users to interact with it by using gestures.

Universal remotes have become popular in the last few years, but they are still difficult to use. Their greatest flaw, though, may be that they do not help quash those battles over who gets the remote. CRISTAL solves those problems, says Christian Müller-Tomfelde, an Australian researcher who is currently writing a book on research in tabletop displays.

“It is a clever use of the tabletop as a ‘world-in-miniature’ interface to control room elements,” he says.

Scott and researchers from the Upper Austria University of Applied Sciences have been working on the idea for less than a year. It started when Michael Haller, the head of the Media Interaction Lab at the university, found himself frustrated with different remotes for each device: TV, radio and DVD player.

“Every time you get a new device into the living room, you get a new remote with it,” says Scott. “And instead of difficult programmable universal remotes, this offers intuitive mapping of the different devices and home.”

CRISTAL uses a camera to capture the living room and all the devices in it, including lamps and digital picture frames. The captured video is displayed on the multi-touch coffee table. The video image of the device itself is the interface, so a sliding gesture on the image can turn up the volume of the TV, for instance. To watch a movie, drag an image of the movie cover and drop it on to the TV on the multitouch screen.

But it will be a few years before this remote is available at Best Buy. It could take five to 10 years before affordable multitouch tabletops can be created for consumers, says Müller-Tomfelde. “The investment to get such a coffee-table display into the living room is not to be underestimated, as we can see with Microsoft’s Surface technology,” he says.

Scott estimates that a tabletop remote such as CRISTAL could cost $10,000 to $15,000. But she is confident that the idea can become viable enough for consumer production in a few years, especially if it can be combined with Microsoft’s Surface product.

Check out a video demo of CRISTAL below.

Photo and video: Media Interaction Lab

And another very promising multi touch table

Earlier I discussed the multitouch solutions from Structable and MS (the surface) and besides these (and all (multi)touch all in one pc's) there is also the The Ideum mt2 Table. This seems to be a pretty idiot proof design created for a museum but pretty useable for other purposes as well. It still might be a bit too expensive to double as a dining table but in an enterprise environment there are some nice applications I can think of (and probably even create since they deliver these tools as well with the table). According to their website:

Ready to Go

The mt2 Table supports multi-touch and multi-user interactions. It has a bright 50" (diagonal) surface with a high-resolution display, which is higher than Microsoft's Surface multi-touch table. The large display also makes it easier to for multiple simultaneous visitors to interact with computer programs and one another. The multi-touch support allows the use of intuitive hand gestures to manipulate images and media items and to interact with computer-based applications.

Made for the Museum

As museums are moving toward developing exhibits that foster more visitor communication and interaction: the mt2 Table is a great platform for these types of computer-based exhibits. The playful nature of multi-touch interaction and the large surface and low table height all contribute to the visitor experience. The mt2 Table does what traditional computer kiosks can't do: it fosters social interaction and allows visitors to interact physically with museum collections and educational programs.

One Tough Table

The mt² Table is designed for active museum environments. Both the outside frame and the interior railing system is made of rugged, aircraft-grade aluminum framing material. While the table top is made of thick tempered glass. The interior components have been selected for their quality and durability. The mt2 Table has been field tested at a hands-on science museum.

The 50" (diagonal) glass top is coated underneath with projection material for a bright display. The display size is 16:9 ratio at 1280 x 720 pixels. The bright 2100 ANSI projector has a 2000-to-1 contrast ratio and the image displays on the table with zero keystoning. The high-resolution DLP projector has 3,000 hour bulb life.

NUI Suite 1.5 Snowflake

The mt2 Table ships with NUI's innovative Snowflake Software. NUI Suite 1.5 Snowflake is a fast and reliable gesture recognition multi-touch software package. This software suite includes NUI Touch Core, which can be used with any programming language that supports the TUIO protocol. Software developers can create their own applications with Flash (ActionScript3), C/C++/C#, Java, Python, and other programming languages.

The NUI Snowflake package comes with a set of basic applications: Viewer (media viewer with support for image and video media types), Draw (basic drawing application), 3D model viewer (.3ds and .obj file format support) along with other applications. The mt2 Table package even includes NUI's TouchEarth (Google Earth with a multitouch interface).

Collection Viewer

Each mt2 table comes with Ideum’s Collection Viewer, a multitouch enabled image and video viewer. The Collection Viewer uses Adobe’s XMP metadata providing important information about the media items displayed. In addition, the Collection Viewer supports the Timed Text standard, allowing for captioning of videos.

Ideum’s Collection Viewer, a multitouch enabled image and video viewer.

Struktable - a 70 inch multitouch table

Ok before going into a bit more detail on the latest developments at Struktable I'v got a question for you. What would be your ultimate multi touch application besides rotating and resizing photos and zoom in and out at google maps-earth? Please reply with your ultimate multitouch application

The Struktable is an interactive installation built by Strukt to develop multi-touch applications. It can be rented for events or permanent installations with custom software developed for individual needs.

With its 70-inch display size, the Struktable is built for simultaneous interaction of up to 8 people. The touch-sensitive surface recognizes unlimited finger touches at the same time - therefore, users can interact more intuitively.

The portable design makes it versatile for diverse applications: product presentations at trade fairs, interactive gamestations at conferences or information terminals in public space.

The Struktable makes use of the FTIR (frustrated total internal reflection) effect. Therefore, infrared LEDs are placed around the acrylic top, and finger touches reflect the light into the camera on the bottom of the table. Only one PC is needed for tracking, gesture recognition and 2D/3D rendering of the GUI. A beamer then projects the GUI onto the surface.The only downside to me here is the resolution. It's not a full HD screen but only 1280*800 pixels. The big plus is the design. It just looks great

Applications for the Struktable are implemented in vvvv, a rapid prototyping software. The tracking algorithms have been realised by the Technical University Vienna. Basic applications are ready for use, while custom software can be developed by Strukt on demand.

And for those interested there is a lot to read on their cool table at: http://multitouch.at/

Microsoft vs Competition: 2-1

After showing off the surface some years ago (and the sphere a few months ago, see earlier post in this blog) competitors have reacted by several types of multi touch tables. Not sure but I think the way open source and other projects around multi touch showed up may have pushed Microsoft to bring the surface to the market after all or at least faster than they would have planned.

Surface, the next itteration is called SecondLight

But now there is a new great piece of work delivered by Microsoft Research in Cambridge - SecondLight. The new table projects an image through the table itself, so that any translucent material (such as tracing paper or perspex) held above the Surface screen displays a different image to what you see on the table's display.



This means you can have a satellite image of a town on the table, and have the street names projected on to a piece of paper that the user holds above the map. Or you could have a photo of a car, with the tracing paper displaying images of its innards as you pan the paper across the screen. Microsoft described the technology as a "magic lens".

How it works

SecondLight works by projecting two different images from beneath the table. The table surface itself is formed of a liquid crystal display that switches between frosted and transparent states when electrical voltage is passed through it.

By rapidly flicking the screen between the two states, the table appears as permanently diffuse, displaying an image like an ordinary Surface table.

The screen is, in fact, transparent for half the time. And during these periods then second image is beamed on to the paper, confusing the eye into believing it's seeing two images simultaneously.
Using an infrared camera, the secondary "display" can also be used as a multitouch surface. What's more, it can display video.

Microsoft gave no indication of when SecondLight will be ready for commercial release, but judging by the interest in the ordinary Surface tables, it shouldn't keep this one locked in the labs for long.