Microsoft had just recently announced Microsoft Surface. Dont worry, this is not another OS or new branch of Vista from this giant software company. Its entirely a new thing.

Introducing Microsoft Surface, a new generation of touchscreen computer - in the form of a coffee table. Ok. that sounds weird. But yeah seriously. Actually this project started few years ago but Microsoft decided to keep it as a top secret project. This is a kind of computer which is embedded into a small table for a table top computing experience. Put your keyboard and mouse away from you because you are not going to use it. You just need this coffee table and your finger to operate everything in Surface.

But dont be confused. This Surface does not operate like your normal PC. This is completely new stuff. The coolest thing I can see from this Surface is the interaction between this machine, the human and other devices. The screen of the Surface is a large horizontal “multitouch” screen. By “multitouch”, that means it is capable of processing multiple inputs from multiple users. It can also recognize any object or devices that we place on top of it by their shapes or by reading coded “domino” tag - whatever that means. Then, you can use the interface to wirelessly transfer images/data from the device to Surface or vice versa. (videos after the jump)

For example, you have a wireless digital camera. Place it on top of the Surface screen and it will automatically drag the pictures out of the camera into the interface. Then you can play around with the picture, flip through, resize with your finger, play the video and watever. If you want, place your cellphone on Surface, then just drag the picture towards the cellphone and you picture is transferred. How easy is that.

That sounds fun. But fun does not equal to useful functionality. Microsoft Surface is not just about playing your picures and all. It is believes that this product is mostly targeted to business user.With Surface, you can easily automated food ordering system in restaurants, music purchasing in music stores or anything you can ever imagine.

Well, maybe you dont need the whole meeting room to present some proposal to your boss. Just transfer your presenstation data into the Surface, then have a relaxing discussion on the couch with some colleagues around the coffee table while music is playing in the background. How bout a discussion with the clients? ..

But the only concern is how much will this thing costs? USD10,000 maybe? Thats too expensive for a bulk purchasing. Some people are saying that this is the Apple iPhone killer from Microsoft. I might want to agree with that since iPhone is not that hot afterall. We’ll see about that later.

Have a clearer picture of Surface by watching this video;

cannot view the video? click here