Microsoft demos multi-touch Sphere
updated 08:25 am EDT, Tue July 29, 2008
MS Sphere Multi Touch
Microsoft today provided a promised demo of Sphere, its next-generation multi-touch device. The device expands on the lessons learned from the Surface table and shows how future electronics could apply complex finger input to curved surfaces. In addition to altering the picture to ensure it displays properly on the ball-shaped screen, Microsoft has also switched to an infrared sensor system at the center that registers multiple fingers and palms regardless of their position on the sphere.
The demonstrator model primarily relies on modified versions of software from Surface to show the differences. Users can press a palm against the surface to send photos across to the opposite side of the sphere in the photo manipulation software, while the new hardware can also rotate freely on the horizontal axis and gives the paint program the option of creating pottery-like patterns by holding fingers against the screen while it spins.
Microsoft plans a more formal rollout today but considers Sphere a proof of concept rather than a prototype for a future product, as was the case with last year's Surface introduction. The Windows developer expects a consumer version of a Surface-related product within a few years, but hasn't said whether it will borrow any technology from Sphere to create the finished product. [via Seattle Post-Intelligencer]
OK?
07/29, 08:52am reply
Wow, look at the amazing quality of that spherical picture display. OMG! Is it running Mojave?
.....I wonder if the blue screen of death is just as annoying when it's spherical as it is when it's flat?
pyle129
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Joined: Jul 2008
Why?
07/29, 08:54am reply
And with this sphere I can do what?
Why on God's beautiful blue and green earth would I want one of these!?
It's bad enough having to move windows around to find what I'm looking for. Having to get up and walk behind the monitor is just taking the wazz!
rcopeh
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Joined: Apr 2008
beach ball
07/29, 08:55am reply
At last, a computer I can take to the beach and play with.
macjockey
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Joined: Jun 2004
What?
07/29, 09:26am reply
What could possibly be the real world application of this product?
Is there a segment of the population with some sort of weird eyesight disorder that this thing would allow them to see better because of the distorted spherical image?
Microsoft is that the best you can come up with all of your money? They say money can't buy class, apparently it can't buy imagination either.
George3
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Joined: Jul 2008
Collective Insanity?
07/29, 09:33am reply
Clearly, Microsoft has finally gone off the deep end.
I suppose as a technology exercise it has some value, but they can't be serious about marketing such a thing.
Talk about useless!?!?!?
Who would want one? How would it be used?
WHAT were they thinking?
JeffHarris
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Joined: Oct 1999
remember sleeper?
07/29, 10:06am reply
With Woody Allen and Diane keaton and the Orb"UM, COULD I GET A HIT OFF OF THAT ORB, MILO ?"
Guest
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Joined: Nov 1999
Meh.
07/29, 10:24am reply
Did you all miss the "...proof of concept rather than a prototype for a future product" part? Of course it's stupid, but there is no real world application for this and they're not arguing that there is. It's just bling for bling's sake.
pottymouth
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Joined: Nov 2003
bling?
07/29, 10:41am reply
Of course we understand the whole not-a-real-product disclaimer. But last time I checked - bling was supposed to be cool, shiny, sparkly, fancy, awe-inspiring.
This is none of that. Just a dull dark ball with fuzzy images. My bank's touch-screen ATM machines look slicker than that.
cblackmo
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Joined: Nov 2006
can it bounce or do maps?
07/29, 10:51am reply
Yawn!
Wake me when they learn how to make it bounce.
Or when it runs a spherical version of Google Maps and Google Earth. Now that would be a useful and impressive demo.
Guest
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Joined: Nov 1999
please
07/29, 11:01am reply
stop and think before all of the Microsoft hating comes out. It's a proof of concept, true. But look at the big picture. They've developed the hardware and software for a spherical haptics interface using infrared to (probably) register heat signatures of fingerprints, thereby triangulating them for 3D positioning. Imagine the medical, educational or military training applications of such a device.
Man, you Mac fanboys aren't too bright.
gitcypher
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Joined: Jul 2007