Microsoft hopes 'Milan' table PC has magic touch

At first glance, Microsoft's secret project looks like a 2007 version of the sit-down arcade game Ms. Pac Man.

But if this machine were running the game, you could just take your finger and flick away the monsters chasing the heroine.

Microsoft on Wednesday is taking the wraps off "Milan," more than five years in the making and the first in what the company hopes will be a long line of "surface computers." The Microsoft Surface tabletop PC, for which the company has created both the hardware and software, offers shades of the technology seen in the sci-fi thriller Minority Report. The whole unit is controlled entirely through touch; there's no mouse or keyboard.

To paint, people can pick up a paint brush or just dip their fingers in virtual paint cups. Sharing photos is similarly intuitive. A stack of pictures can be easily sorted through and shared. To resize a photo, just stretch two fingers apart. Pivot the fingers and the image rotates. More than one person can be interacting with the computer at a time.

"It's very approachable," said Pete Thompson, the former T-Mobile executive who runs Microsoft's surface-computing business. "You just want to touch it."

Although consumers will be able to touch it later this year, most won't be able to buy a surface computer any time soon.

The expensive components required to allow multiple users to touch the device simultaneously give it a price tag approaching $10,000. As a result, Microsoft isn't targeting homes initially, though it hopes consumers can own their own Milan within three to five years. For now, Microsoft is focusing on getting the products into public spaces in the hospitality arena--hotel lobbies, restaurants, and casinos, to name a few.

The company's initial customers are cellular carrier T-Mobile, which will use the units in its retail stores; hotel operator Starwood, which owns brands including Sheraton and Westin; casino owner Harrah's and slot game maker IGT. Each of the initial partners should have a few initial machines up and running around November, Thompson said.

Thompson said the roll-out approach is similar to that taken by the tech industry with plasma displays, which were used in trade show booths for years while they were still too costly for the home.

Video: Microsoft unveils touch-screen computing
Giant tabletop PC blends reality with virtual reality.

Sheraton Vice President Hoyt Harper said Microsoft's tactic is pretty savvy, noting that many guests who might see the product in a Sheraton lobby could easily be among those who will buy one when it finally does go on sale widely. "I think that's one reason they chose us," he said.

Harper said the computers fit perfectly into his company's efforts to turn its hotel lobbies into destinations rather than merely places people stop on their way somewhere else. That, he said, makes them easily worth their high price tag.

"How can you not take advantage of something that could materially change the guest experience in the lobby?" Harper asked. Initially, Sheraton plans to have three Milan machines at hotels in New York, Boston and Chicago, with two in each lobby and one in the club lounge. If that means folks are lining up, he said, all the better.

"It will be a nice problem to have," he said.

Another consideration, in addition to cost, is how well Milan holds up to wear and tear. Harrah's CIO Tim Stanley wants to make sure the machines are built to last before he starts placing them in casinos on the Vegas strip.

If he puts one in the Pure nightclub, for example, "they might dance on (the) table," he said. "Can it handle that?"

[pjianwei]

MS is not that innovationless.

They spent billions on research but the things they come up with are too quirky, not that mainstream. Things like origami or tablet are special but they are not as mainstream as the ipod wheel control.

[jessiethe3rd]

Microsoft R&D

There's a lot more to it then you think. For goodness sake Microsoft creates and sells patient technology leveraging its partner community. Unlike Apple, Microsoft shares the wealth across a vast industry eco system.

[t8]

But can you google?

But can you google? What matters is getting access to the Internet.

[t8]

Actually Google could...

Google could create a similar device for accessing the Internet only. They could then make all their Web properties available instead of applications. No hard drive needed.<br /><br />They could undercut MS for price by leveraging their Adsense network to gain revenue, not to mention the extra traffic they would get.

[genotypewriter]

It's like asking...

... whether someone can use a car just to sit in.<br /><br />CNET had a link to a YouTube video of the same product where they show a virtual keyboard (as I recall).<br /><br />Again, don't confuse the hardware with the software and the basics components of a computer such as input/output devices and the CPU.

[CBWolf]

Wow

As a Mac user, and some one who has faulted Microsoft for years <br />for being a commodity player with little ability to innovate or even <br />create a quality product, all I can say is wow. The Microsoft-camp <br />definitely has a feather to put in their cap with the Milan. Let's hope <br />it doesn't take too long for these things to filter down into the <br />consumer market.

[zmonster]

patents

Does the MS Surface multi-touch interface infringe on the patents <br />Apple has for the iPhone multitouch paradigm? I guess we'll find <br />out soon enough.

[notgonnatellya]

Not a commodity

PC's are commodities, but MS products are not. They get fairly high prices for most of their s/w products. I've never looked closely at their hardware, so perhaps their joysticks, mice and keyboards are commodities.

[Thrudheim]

Don't go too far

Lots of people are working on this, not just Microsoft. Jeff Han's <br />demos of this kind of technology represent the most advanced <br />work. And Apple, surely, is not just putting multi-touch into the <br />iPhone. My bet is that they've got some really interesting stuff <br />coming out soon.<br /><br />So, yes, give credit to Microsoft for a cool demo, but there's a lot <br />of other stuff coming from many companies that will be similarly <br />cool.<br /><br />For what its worth, the earliest demonstrations coming from <br />Microsoft's labs of a UI involving a sidebar were way, way cooler <br />than what finally came out in Vista. They have a long record of <br />making a big fuss about prototypes and concepts.

[coryschulz]

Looks nice

I would not be surprised to find many other companies come out with many similar, and much cheaper, products in the next few years. I don't know if this is something Apple would get into, but I think a lot of other companies would.

[Llib Setag]

NYU Multi-Touch & Apple

Go to YouTube &#38; search for "Multi Touch" to see NYU professor's <br />demo of this technology. This study was funded by Apple &#38; <br />others.<br />Apple has patented their version of Multi-Touch with the iPhone, <br />but that is just the tip of the iceberg.<br /><br />Leopard OSX 10.5 has been "optimized" for Multi-Touch apps &#38; <br />Apple has been researching Multi-Touch displays as well...<br /><br />Multi-Touch OSX &#38; iPhone are less than a MONTH away, yet MS <br />has been in "R&#38;D" mode for FIVE YEARS on Milan...WHY did they <br />choose NOW to talk about this?<br /><br />MS : great pitch / no follow through.<br /><br />Apple : delivers the home run.<br /><br /><a class="jive-link-external" href="http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Multi" target="_newWindow">http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Multi</a><br />+Touch&#38;search=Search<br /><br /><a class="jive-link-external" href="http://www.apple.com/iphone/technology/" target="_newWindow">http://www.apple.com/iphone/technology/</a><br /><br />iPHONE + Multi-Touch technology at January 2007 Keynote <br />Address :<br /><a class="jive-link-external" href="http://events.apple.com.edgesuite.net/j47d52oo/event/" target="_newWindow">http://events.apple.com.edgesuite.net/j47d52oo/event/</a>

[Mister Winky]

At least one multi-touch device has been in the market for over a year...

Before everyone starts claiming Apple or MS are first to market with a multi-tocuh based device, be aware that another company beat both of them to the punch.<br /><br />Admittedly, it's an expensive and relatively obscure product aimed at musicians, DJs, audio engineers, etc. but the Jazz Mutant Lemur has been ringing up rave review for over a year now:<br /><br /><a class="jive-link-external" href="http://www.jazzmutant.com/lemur_lastupdate.php" target="_newWindow">http://www.jazzmutant.com/lemur_lastupdate.php</a><br /><br />It's a customizable multi-touch interface for controlling audio functions, virtual instruments and effects.<br /><br />-Mister Winky

[genotypewriter]

What a possessive bunch...

... apple fans are! What's wrong if these things are there in the market? The better product will win! Right now, all the things you're comparing this with are for different purposes. Why on earth do you people take these things personally? It's sub-human behavior.

[aemarques]

Philips...

Philips has come out with something similiar, although focused on board games:<br /><a class="jive-link-external" href="http://www.research.philips.com/initiatives/entertaible/index.html" target="_newWindow">http://www.research.philips.com/initiatives/entertaible/index.html</a>

[aemarques]

BEFORE iPhony

Oh, BTW, Philips showed this for the first time (in public) at CES in January 2006... ;-)

[expatincebu]

Microsoft inovative?

Now there is an oxymoron! MS only talent is copying other companies ideas, doing a lousy implementation of it, and marketing the hell out of it to half witted CIO's.<br /><br />I am sure Milan will be a big hit, just like Zune.

[smilin:)]

Yep

Quite innovative. $6.5 Billion dollars a year in R&#38;D (That's a B). Apple by contrast does what $550 million or so?<br /><br />As for copying other companies...you realize that Microsoft holds patents for the iPod interface right? Apple copied it and as a result pays MS on every unit sold.<br /><br />Know that nifty thing called google earth? Who's technology do you think google is licensing? They aren't even leveraging it to it's full potential either. Go look at the maps &#38; 3D of MS's Virtual Earth.<br /><br />Oh and the Zune? That went from napkin diagram to working product in 8 months. Find another company that can do that. I guess wireless networking on a personal device isn't innovative either. BTW.. Apple had a 5 year head start with the hdd based music player but the Zune is already #2 on the list in less than a year.<br /><br />Who do you suppose Microsoft copied this latest idea from? Oh yeah...that one company that has been innovating in the tablet PC area for years now. Who was that again? That's right..Microsoft.<br /><br />Microsoft is quite an innovater. You're just a hater. Did Bill Gates buy your dog or something?

[SuperYogurt]

@smilin:)<br /><br />We all appreciate the rabid display of Microsoft-fanboyism, it's quite amusing, but maybe you should get your facts straight. The so called "Microsoft patent for iPod" has nothing to do with its interface. The two patents are actually quite unrelated, and both have been rejected multiple times.<br />http://www.forbes.com/home/digitalentertainment/2005/08/12/microsoft-apple-patent-cx_ld_0812microsoft.html<br />http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/08/10/microsoft_apple_patent/<br /><br />The Zune is not innovative, no matter how you spin it. Wireless networking? Wow...good idea, but hardly innovation. 8-month development time is why the first generation Zune sucked so much. If anything, it shows lack of management skills and care about the final product. Oh, and it also might show that Microsoft has a lot of money.<br /><br />I don't know what you're talking about with Google Earth; Virtual Earth is a new competitor from Microsoft. Once again, after seeing the success of another company, Microsoft had decided to come up with a very similar product.<br /><br />Microsoft innovating in the tablet PC area? I don't know much about this... but... example? I've never heard anything of the sort.<br /><br />So, to sum up, you have misrepresented information, lied, failed to analyze information properly, and made personal assumptions. Maybe Microsoft bought you?

[joe11ee]

mi

im just dropping by,nice post!<br /><br />iPod Converter<br /><a class="jive-link-external" href="http://www.ipodconverter.com" target="_newWindow">http://www.ipodconverter.com</a>

[rdean]

Hope they don't patent the horizontal kiosk

That'd be another black mark on the USPTO's record.

[fred dunn]

Outstanding, It's about time....

That MS focuses on touch technology as a primary UI. Next to voice it is the most intuitive interface but it should not have to be horizontal. HW Vendors should work on developing touch interfaces with (at minimum) resolutions matching that of large screen LCD TV's that also isolated the user from damaging the LCD.<br />Kiosks have been around for a while so while this is really not a new concept the idea of the OS being touch-centric is. But to really use this technology it will have to be as high a resolution of commercially available graphics pads yet not as expensive.<br /><br />Good luck with this.

[wildchild_plasma_gyro]

Future of this product

Will entertain some hard core enthusiasts,Pubs and clubs.<br />Will last about six year and won't earn enough money in itself to fund the real jewel microsoft obviously wants a piece of one that projects holographically up and that you can touch.<br />However that version is going to take a lot and it's no suprise this model won't really wash the sides on funding the biggy.<br />But hey its an addition to the cabinet.<br />How ever mini PC's and mobile gadgets are well capable of doing **** loads of things especially with a brain like windows in them and that comment from the head of RandD saying about the only thing on the big market for mobiles was the standard model.<br />One bad decision if ever there was one.<br />Obviously no one thort of what a mini DLP could do for Gates eyes given a good spectrum, some rifined omega 3 oils, a few carotine and advancments to the bateses method plus super safty testing.<br />Hey it beats a laser anyday and work to better eyes for life.

[gatornuke]

what about writing?

what happens when you need to write a paper or some e-mail? will it have an on-screen keyboard? those things are incredibly annoying.

[weegg]

Limited use

This type of technology is really limiting unless there is some <br />feedback support (which it does not have). <br /><br />Other technologies will overtake it fairly quickly. Brain-wave <br />translation and application looks to be more fruitful than this.

[FutureGuy]

good answer

couldn't have put it better

[Hep Cat]

Apple has "Talked about the use of multitouch"?

They're shipping the iPhone in three weeks.<br /><br />Once again, Apple beats Microsoft to market, and C|Net can't help <br />but fall all over the gang from Redmond.<br /><br />This announcement has more to do with Gates' insecurity about <br />being on stage with Jobs tonight at the D conference.

[smilin:)]

c|net has it right

The iphone isn't using multitouch.<br /><br />The iphone is using technology developed years ago by those guys that do all those tablet PCs...Microsoft.<br /><br />And Gates isn't insecure in the slightest. Jobs is facing the SEC on one side and a far more intelligent man on the other that probably has enough change in his pocket to buy him right there on the stage.

[Koo Breez]

Apple isn't multi-touch

None of Apple's products are multi-touch nor is iPhone. iPhone isn't even a Smartphone for that matter. You religious Apple fanatics can't even see past your own stupidity.

[smilin:)]

ah, apple fans..

Apples "innovative" OS was so crappy with memory management and other fundamentals that they had to "innovate" a new one by licencing freeBSD.<br /><br />They "innovated" an mp3 player by copying the existing ones out there, slapping someone else design for a scroll wheel on it and licencing MS patents for the interface.<br /><br />That's it. Two products. What? Is there something else even worth mentioning? If you talk about their servers or apple TV everyone will fall over laughing.<br /><br />Are people so blindly in love with Apple that they can never ever possibly give MS the props? Milan's interface isn't the slightest bit impressive but you'll have an orgasm over the iPhone's? Recognize your bias people.

[prttony]

preach on...

Preach on, I think the word Zealot comes to mind when i think of how blindly Apple folks jump on the bandwagon anytime something 'mac' comes out. I can recognize a good product, i can recognize a good company, can anyone tell me how much apple has donated to 3rd world countries? oh wait there was that "for every nano you buy, apple will donate..." thing, not really donating if you have to BUY SOMETHING TO DONATE! lol.

[genotypewriter]

They remind me of...

... people who have converted from one religion to another. They're usually hateful towards anything that's not what they're following right now.<br /><br />Mac users probably let their own computer-illiteracy abuse them and then developed an aversion towards what they can't achieve instead of going back to master them. A common human fault... and it's more common to see it in mac fans.<br /><br />They also make me think about Nazis... giving in to dictatorship, thinking that everything else is less... think about it...

[subliminalbrad]

Re: ah, apple fans..

Well that was a pretty poorly-informed rant. While you're criticism of &gt;=OS9's memory management is deserved, they were really no worse than Windows ME and earlier. And Apple's reengineering of OSX is pretty analogous to Microsoft's movement from DOS-based ME to NT-based XP. And Apple didn't "license freebsd," they licensed XNU from NeXT to develop Darwin, for which they updated some of the original BSD code with newer FreeBSD code. This is similar to the way Microsoft licensed the VMS kernel for NT.<br /><br />While mp3 players certainly existed pre-iPod, let's give credit where credit is due; the iPod is the most user-friendly digital music player on the market. The click-wheel interface was a true innovation; no interface before or since has come close to its intuitive simplicity.

[kool_skatkat]

what's yours?

And you're not biased?

[smilin:)]

Reading comprehension

Multitouch. Muuullltiiii. Go look at the photo's and you'll get it. The iPhone is using nothing more advanced than the Tablet technology that Microsoft developed over what 5 years ago??<br /><br />MS has already gotten the Milan to market too. Note the hotel branding on the demo units. iPhone (without multitouch) isn't even out yet.<br /><br />Do MS fanbois come jumping on Apple articles the way you guys do? Did Jobs tell you during a sermon to go forth and be zealots like this?<br /><br />It's a pretty neat product. You (meaning rational people) have to admit. :)

[kentonr]

Oh Gawd!

What the hell are you talking about??!! The iPhone is 'without <br />multitouch'??? The iPhone is all about multitouch!!<br /><br />Microsoft is just giving you larkies something to feel good about <br />a few years early (remember how great Vista was supposed to <br />be) while Apple is SHIPPING its multitouch product in a few <br />weeks! Do you seriously think you will walk into a restaurant <br />with this anytime soon?? <br /><br />Naive indeed!

[kool_skatkat]

Years of tablet

Bill admitted, some people have more taste than others. It's amazing how many hears of tablet PC and nothing like the iPhone. There's been a whole industry behind it. The design house, the software companies, all of that... <br /><br />You have to admit it, apple does raise the bar many times.

[hounddoglgs]

5 years and untold millions wasted...

So this is what M$ was doing when they should have been debugging Vista? What a joke! A quote from the article you should heed: <br /><br />"The Microsoft Surface tabletop PC, for which the company has created both the hardware and software,"<br /><br />.... that's a recipe for disaster. I'll bet this thing won't perform half as well as advertised and has the same poor quality of any other M$ product. At $10k, this thing is a novelty item at best- Only a few corporations and geeks with too much money to spend will buy one.

[kakodes_too]

untold millions wasted?

Not much money is wasted. If Microsoft spent the money paying kids to play video games, the money wouldn't be wasted -- it's still in circulation, and taxes are paid.

[FutureGuy]

Apple's porfolio

of products in miniscule compared to MS. Microsoft?s technology is used everywhere from finding the nearest gamestore (local.live.com street&#38;trips, MapPoint), getting a game console (Xbox), connecting to a game community (Xbox ? live) to playing a game (Halo), to listing to music Zune, to getting your office work done (Windows and MS office).

[FutureGuy]

Was meant as reply to MSSlayer guy's comment

$6.5 billion?

[rcrusoe]

Very cool

But when Microsoft ever be able to delivery this technology to the home consumer?<br /><br />As slick as this is, the company that can deliver a consumer product is the one that is going to get the glory. <br /><br />If this is only used for hotels, casinos, kiosks, etc. then it will be as meaningless to the average person as the OS in an ATM or self check out.<br /><br />Let the hype begin!

[Fil0403]

...and very useful

Why shouldn't they be able to deliver (not delivery) this technology to the home consumer? If there is a software company in this world with the power, money and know-how to do something like that it's Microsoft. Plus, even if that wouldn't happen (and they already said it will), an OS in an ATM may be meaningless to you, but who cares about you? Have you ever imagined how rich must be a company that has its OS in every ATM in a country like the USA or in a continent or in the world?