without a patent good luck fighting the infringement
on a more serious note, there was actually something like this shown off a good few years back at Siggraph or GDC or CES.. one of the technology shows about new and innovative desktops.
Basically the same principal, only running a custom build of Linux on a touch screen that you could move documents like in real-life.
The real main difference here is this isn't concept technology.
It's running with Windows Vista Embedded, not only that but you get all the connectivity you could expect from Vista/Media Center. For example you notice how the guy picked up the camera and the images disappeared.. this is because when you put it down the screen will then scan for bluetooth or wifi devices and connect it. So you get instant access to your mobile phone, ipod, digital camera, etc. No waiting, just put it down and it's there.
At CES this year they showed off in typical Gates fashion their concept version of this, as a cooking table. He put a bag of flour on the table, and aparently could tell it what it was.. so brought up recipes based on flour as an ingredient. It then went on to show how large you needed to roll out the dough for what he wanted to make. At CES this technology was concept, and fake. This is same often when other companies show off concept technology; it's often pre-programmed to do exactly what they want to show off rather than what's possible.
Microsoft Surface, isn't just a prototype concept; but a working model. This is what has quite a few reviewers extremely shocked, because they actually were allowed to play about and ask real questions about it. This is the second instance this year (after Mix '07) of Microsoft after Gates. We're not being shown what might happen but what they've worked on and will be delivering for us.
To me, this certainly marks a change in Microsoft. I hope that it continues, so that they become a more trusted company.. they have the ideas that could seriously change how we live and work in a digital lifestyle, with the resources usually aimed at making more money rather than real innovations and industry changing products.
For me this is the hardware equivilant of what Silverlight will be for the internet in the coming months. The biggest turn around in all of this is the fact they're no longer just thinking "we will support only Microsoft".. With Windows Vista now supporting *nix applications, .NET being officially ported to other OS, Silverlight making the rich-internet experience more open and better for programmers as well as designers.. not just performance wise but access-wise.
These are very exciting first steps for the company with Bill Gates no longer in the "final say" seat. His business ethos helped the company grow in the 80s, but recently it's been killing it off to the competition.. it's about time things changed, and from what seems to be coming monthly for the better. I mean we've been seeing what's come from Gates slowly loosing more and more true control over the company, best success story of this is with the Xbox 360. We're could argue about who came up with the idea for Surface until we're all blue in the face, but just think about this:
Who has a working version capable of going to market now, and the resources to do it? Who the hell cares who it's by or who came up with the idea, I don't want to wait 10years while someone keeps tinkering with an idea. I want this technology today.
