Thursday, March 12, 2009

Surface PCs and you

This post falls slightly (well... quite a bit, to be honest :P) off topic. But outsite the Sitecore realm of computing my eyes are very clearly focused on what I personally believe to be a big thing in the years to come; Surface Computing. Or - at least - that's what the Microsoft term for it is. Now I know we're all gobsmacked about the Sitecore 6 Page Editor facilities. But try and take a look at this, and tell me (honestly) you couldn't see technology like this implemented in a system like Sitecore. Jeff Han: Unveiling the genius of multi-touch interface design While I'm not even at a point (yet) where I can get my hands on the Microsoft Surface SDK, I know myself well enough to realise - once this technology becomes more widely available, I won't be able to keep my nose out of it. Don't take that literally ;-) Could you imagine working with the structure of your site in this manner? Organising your Sitecore Media Library? Drag-and-dropping renderings onto your layouts? I'm rambling, I'm sure. But ideas like this is what drives great development. Anyone else? :-)

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm really excited about those systems, and had a great time trying Surface v1 at PDC.

I'm concerned about one thing - what new interfaces will truly add new value and be usable, instead of being just Minority report kind of demos.

Mark Cassidy said...

I guess only time will tell. I think we're seeing more and more specialised devices, taking over from the traditional PC - and I can definitely see applications for Surface Computing in the services and media industries. On the home front, I guess they will only appear in the homes of geeks like myself ;-)

Speaking of movies, surface computing was also demonstrated in The Island, where a personnel file was drawn up when the hero meets the big bad Head of the Institute... ;-)

Anonymous said...

I also think surface is cool and when I planned my imaginary super scrum tool a year ago it of course had surface as the scrum board :-P