Uploaded December 2012 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
Microsoft Surface History
The earliest ideas that led to Surface originated at Microsoft back in 2001. At that time, researchers envisioned an "interactive table" that could sense the presence and movement of any objects on its surface. Microsoft founder Bill Gates encouraged the project in early 2003. After 85 prototypes, the project team came up with a design that would eventually become Surface 1.0.
Microsoft first demonstrated Surface at the 2007 All Things Digital (D) conference in Carlsbad, California. During that D conference, known as D5, Surface was far from the first platform making use of touch-screens. Tablet PCs, for example, could already detect a finger or stylus writing directly to the screen. Microsoft's vision, though, has been to expand on that touch-screen approach to change the way people interact across the table from each other. The Surface device demonstrated at D5 was a black tabletop with a 30-inch (76.2-centimeter) touch-screen mounted beneath its clear acrylic surface [sources: Mintz, Fost, Microsoft, All Things Digital].
Microsoft's first commercial deployment for Surface came nearly a year after this debut. In April 2008, select AT&T retail stores in the U.S. began using Surface computers as a sales tool for showcasing information about its mobile devices. Other corporate partners were in the works throughout 2008, primarily those who could enhance their businesses by using Surface devices and, in turn, show off the wondrous things that Surface could do. At an estimated price of more than $12,000, Microsoft was not targeting the average home consumer during its first Surface release [sources: Microsoft, Microsoft, Foley].
During the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in early January 2011, Microsoft launched its marketing campaign for Surface 2.0. It also promoted its partnership with Samsung to produce the SUR40: a 4-inch (10.2-centimeter) thick tabletop computer with a 40-inch (1-meter) display running the Surface 2.0 platform. Scheduled to hit the market later in 2011, Microsoft reported that the SUR40 would cost about $7,600 in the United States. The price point, combined with the available software for Surface 2.0, seemed to indicate that Microsoft was still targeting the business owner rather than the home consumer [source: Foley].
That's the brief history of Surface, though there will likely be many more chapters to come for this innovative new tool. Now, let's look under the hood and see what makes Surface more than just a big touch-screen display.
The Surface has implemented its NUI with a combination of hardware and software all packed inside a single device. The Surface 1.0 hardware features a series of cameras that sense a user's touch or other objects placed on the tabletop. The Surface software processes the data from those cameras and then responds as appropriate for the application you're currently using. Surface shows the resulting interaction on its display, which is actually a projection of the screen from underneath the tabletop [source: Microsoft].
As part of its NUI, Surface also includes multi-touch technology. This means that Surface can detect and process several touch points simultaneously. Therefore, if you have several people browsing through pictures at one time, they can each drag, zoom and turn photos at the same time without waiting for each other. Multi-touch technology has been in existence for decades, and Apple made it famous by using it in its iPhone and iPod Touch devices. Surface computing brings that technology into a large, collaborative environment that can fully realize the multi-touch potential [source: Buxton].
40-inch (1-meter) LCD screen
4-inch (10.2-centimeter) unit depth/thickness for easier horizontal mounting
2.9 GHz 64-bit AMD Athlon X2 dual core processor
1 GB AMD Radeon HD graphics processor
4 GB DDR3 RAM
320 GB hard drive
Wired (1 GB Ethernet) and wireless (802.11 and Bluetooth) network hardware
Physical connectors include HDMI, stereo RCA, USB and SD card
Embedded 64-bit Windows 7 Professional operating system
Corning Gorilla Glass to protect the surface
Recognition for more than 50 simultaneous touch points
We've just looked at the Surface hardware and how Microsoft is leading the way for surface computing. As Microsoft is primarily a software company, you might expect that the software part of the Surface platform is also quite innovative. Let's take a look at that on the next page.
-~-~~-~~~-~~-~-
Please watch: "Lifi Communication by Arduino UNO Download Project"
youtube.com/watch?v=c4gC8dbaiZg
-~-~~-~~~-~~-~-
Microsoft Surface History
The earliest ideas that led to Surface originated at Microsoft back in 2001. At that time, researchers envisioned an "interactive table" that could sense the presence and movement of any objects on its surface. Microsoft founder Bill Gates encouraged the project in early 2003. After 85 prototypes, the project team came up with a design that would eventually become Surface 1.0.
Microsoft first demonstrated Surface at the 2007 All Things Digital (D) conference in Carlsbad, California. During that D conference, known as D5, Surface was far from the first platform making use of touch-screens. Tablet PCs, for example, could already detect a finger or stylus writing directly to the screen. Microsoft's vision, though, has been to expand on that touch-screen approach to change the way people interact across the table from each other. The Surface device demonstrated at D5 was a black tabletop with a 30-inch (76.2-centimeter) touch-screen mounted beneath its clear acrylic surface [sources: Mintz, Fost, Microsoft, All Things Digital].
Microsoft's first commercial deployment for Surface came nearly a year after this debut. In April 2008, select AT&T retail stores in the U.S. began using Surface computers as a sales tool for showcasing information about its mobile devices. Other corporate partners were in the works throughout 2008, primarily those who could enhance their businesses by using Surface devices and, in turn, show off the wondrous things that Surface could do. At an estimated price of more than $12,000, Microsoft was not targeting the average home consumer during its first Surface release [sources: Microsoft, Microsoft, Foley].
During the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in early January 2011, Microsoft launched its marketing campaign for Surface 2.0. It also promoted its partnership with Samsung to produce the SUR40: a 4-inch (10.2-centimeter) thick tabletop computer with a 40-inch (1-meter) display running the Surface 2.0 platform. Scheduled to hit the market later in 2011, Microsoft reported that the SUR40 would cost about $7,600 in the United States. The price point, combined with the available software for Surface 2.0, seemed to indicate that Microsoft was still targeting the business owner rather than the home consumer [source: Foley].
That's the brief history of Surface, though there will likely be many more chapters to come for this innovative new tool. Now, let's look under the hood and see what makes Surface more than just a big touch-screen display.
The Surface has implemented its NUI with a combination of hardware and software all packed inside a single device. The Surface 1.0 hardware features a series of cameras that sense a user's touch or other objects placed on the tabletop. The Surface software processes the data from those cameras and then responds as appropriate for the application you're currently using. Surface shows the resulting interaction on its display, which is actually a projection of the screen from underneath the tabletop [source: Microsoft].
As part of its NUI, Surface also includes multi-touch technology. This means that Surface can detect and process several touch points simultaneously. Therefore, if you have several people browsing through pictures at one time, they can each drag, zoom and turn photos at the same time without waiting for each other. Multi-touch technology has been in existence for decades, and Apple made it famous by using it in its iPhone and iPod Touch devices. Surface computing brings that technology into a large, collaborative environment that can fully realize the multi-touch potential [source: Buxton].
40-inch (1-meter) LCD screen
4-inch (10.2-centimeter) unit depth/thickness for easier horizontal mounting
2.9 GHz 64-bit AMD Athlon X2 dual core processor
1 GB AMD Radeon HD graphics processor
4 GB DDR3 RAM
320 GB hard drive
Wired (1 GB Ethernet) and wireless (802.11 and Bluetooth) network hardware
Physical connectors include HDMI, stereo RCA, USB and SD card
Embedded 64-bit Windows 7 Professional operating system
Corning Gorilla Glass to protect the surface
Recognition for more than 50 simultaneous touch points
We've just looked at the Surface hardware and how Microsoft is leading the way for surface computing. As Microsoft is primarily a software company, you might expect that the software part of the Surface platform is also quite innovative. Let's take a look at that on the next page.
-~-~~-~~~-~~-~-
Please watch: "Lifi Communication by Arduino UNO Download Project"
youtube.com/watch?v=c4gC8dbaiZg
-~-~~-~~~-~~-~-
