Imagine booking everything from your airline trip to your hotel stay for yourself and family, even paying for it using nothing but your fingertips. On arrival at the hotel you are greeted by the reception clerk who confirms your hotel room using his fingers too and only uses his hands to give the room key to the bellhop. Quite likely you both have been interacting with a Microsoft Surface Screen.

We see touch technology in the use of mobile phones, sensors that are triggered by our palm prints and what not. But now touch technology has emerged as a new dimension in computing as well. It has replaced mouse and keyboard. Through touch we can directly interact with the computer using nothing but our own fingertips. No devices needed. Microsoft Surface technology makes all of this possible.

If we take into account our five senses, touch emerges as a very important sensation. For through it we can both feel and reach out. Coupled with our eyes and ears, for vision and sound, touch completes the way in which we can experience things as well as reach out to others. It helps us feel and react to things in the environment around us.

So what is Microsoft Surface, you ask? Microsoft Surface is a revolutionary multi-touch computing technology that responds to natural hand gestures and real-world objects, helping users interact with digital content in a natural, easy way. Using a large, horizontal user interface, Surface offers users an opportunity where many of them can collaborate to simultaneously interact with data and each other.

Microsoft Surface has refined the way we think about interactivity. Surface lets you take digital content with your hands and move information around the work area with simple gestures and touches. It also recognizes and interacts with objects placed on the screen, allowing users to move information between devices like cameras or mobile phones. All this means more fun filled, exciting socializing and computing like no one has ever experienced.

For businesses, Microsoft Surface has the potential to improve communication and be more efficient in how to deliver information and services to customers. The Microsoft Surface interface is easy to learn and the table software platform makes it easy to manage. These multi-touch, multi-user capabilities create incredibly collaborative experiences, making sharing and exploring information easier than ever.

Microsoft Surface uses cameras and image recognition in the infra-red spectrum to decipher different types of objects such as fingers, shapes or other tagged items. This input is then processed by the computer and the resulting interaction is shown using rear projection.

1. Direct Interaction. Users can take digital information with their hands and interact with content on-screen by touching and gestures.

2. Multi-User Experience. Surface’s large, horizontal, 30 inch display makes it easy for several people to gather and interact together.

3. Multi-Touch. Microsoft Surface can respond to not just one but many points of contact at the same time.

4. Object Recognition. Users can place physical objects on the screen to set off different types of digital responses – providing for a multitude of applications and the transfer of digital content to mobile devices.

History

The idea for developing a touch platform online technology started in 2001 when two Microsoft employees- one in research and one in Hardware- started brainstorming ideas for creating a touch platform. They initially supported the concept of creating a tabletop version of an online computer screen with touch computing capabilities. By mixing the physical world of touch with the virtual world of computing, they surmised that they would be able to create a richer interactive experience. This idea was put into development and by 2003 the first product was created by Microsoft’s New Consumer Products Group and presented before its Chairman Bill Gates. Following his approval, the first prototype was produced using an IKEA table, cutting through part of the tabletop and replacing it with a diffuser using architect vellum. Microsoft Surface’s unique ability to recognize physical objects placed on the table brings a new dimension to computing possibilities and application of the technology. The final version available for use today has seen 85 prior prototypes in the developmental phase developed by the Surface Computing Group. With the technological capabilities finalized by 2005, form was the remaining issue. Today the final form has been unveiled as a 30 inch display table that makes it easier for both individuals and small groups to interact. Microsoft Surface has been available since 2008 and you would most likely find it in banks, restaurants, hospitals or cruise ships. By bringing together both people and computers in this new way, Microsoft Surface enables the sharing of digital content in a new and unique manner. Hopefully it’s soon coming to a place near you.

Future Possibilities

Future developments will probably see the use of touch computing technology in homes offices and schools, on TV screens, walls and tabletops. For a glimpse of its possible applications, watch Microsoft’s Future Vision video here

Source: www.emarketer.com

Critical for communication

Newspapers may be reporting on the demise of e-mail, and some research indicates that young people are turning more toward social networking than more traditional online communication, but college students still see e-mail as a critical medium for messages.

More than one-quarter of college students told the Participatory Marketing Network and Pace University’s Lubin School of Business’ IDM Lab that e-mail was the activity they were least likely to give up for a week—far ahead of the 9% who said they couldn’t live without social networks.

“These results may be surprising to some, but not if you consider the role email continues to play in the day-to-day lives of Gen Y,” said Michael Della Penna, PMN co-founder and executive chairman, in a statement. “As long as email remains the collection point for social networking updates, including alerts around new followers, discussion updates and friend requests, it will remain a powerful force in marketing and our lives.”

On average, respondents spend 33 hours per month on social networking sites, compared with 31 hours with e-mail, a small difference considering the hype around social networking.

Text messaging was tied with e-mail as the most “need to have” activity for college kids, nearly one-half of whom sent and received more than 500 messages a month.

First-half 2009 research from ExactTarget showed that social networks were not decreasing the time US Internet users spent with e-mail. In fact, the users most likely to be using e-mail less were also the ones who were using social networks less.

“Social media is one of several factors that help explain why email usage continues to rise although heavy users skew this effect,” according to ExactTarget.

Had it not been for unstoppable technological development transforming today’s communication modes, the world would still be stuck to radio, television and other traditional mediums for access to entertainment and information. It’s the rapid advancement in communication tools that have caused the two most important words entertainment and information to merge together into ‘infotainment’, and given birth to the popular concept of on-the-go infotainment accessibility. Unlike older days when people had little or no control over their media preferences, today’s world offers complete freedom to choose and use the entertainment and information mediums. As our infotainment content continues to be digitalized, like the newspapers, radio, TV shows, videos etc, we have increasingly more control over our media consumption.

When we look at the changing face of the global media consumption, the Middle East appears as one highlighted spot. The fact that a cluster of some of the world’s fastest developing nations constitutes this region is enough to give a reader a mental picture of its transforming media consumption landscape. Just like the skyscrapers emerging from the desert sands of the Middle East, the region’s media consumption is also undergoing a similar transition. Sources of information and entertainment are proliferating throughout the Middle Eastern region. Rising literacy figures in the region are also giving way to increased media consumption and use of a greater variety of mediums used.

Until 2003, the most popular entertainment and information medium was television followed in popularity by FM radio, Newspapers and the internet. The lesser consumption of Newspapers and the internet compared to television and radio was due to low literacy figures as use of these mediums demands greater comprehension and technical skills. Till 2003, the internet penetration in the Middle East was limited only to the young and well educated urban dwellers (the new remarkable internet growth figures are discussed below). The then news consumers in the Middle East tended to be more of skeptics.

Years flew by and the region’s media market kept growing exponentially. Middle East’s media markets grew highly dynamic and gradually competitive too. The popularity of satellite television surged higher than ever before with a continuous upwards trend. As the television boom set off, regional stations which were perceived as local dominated the international ones, but gradually the trend changed with the regional population taking slow shine to the international stations too. Internet, which until 2003 was of no more use than a source of information with very limited accessibility, grew fast in the Middle East making the region world’s fastest growing internet market. Today the role of the internet in the Middle East extends beyond merely a source of information to a great source of entertainment and socializing.

As the Middle East’s media market grew, consumers continued to get increasingly sophisticated with multiplying choices. Today the most positive factor signaling a greater growth of Middle East’s media market is its youth audiences which constitute a major and prominent segment of the region’s overall media consumers. Despite escalating literacy figures and increased media exposure, the popularity hierarchy of Middle East’s media remains almost the same with television taking the first place followed consecutively by newspapers, radio and internet. Although the internet penetration has been the world’s highest in the Middle East in the past decade, it still failed to surpass the more popular mediums which also saw an upward trend in popularity over the same period.

But having a quick look at the international media consumption, the Middle East appears to lag behind in the use of new technology. The global media consumption graph below shows the different mediums listed as per popularity. Interestingly enough, games hit the top of the list of these global media preferences with print amazingly taking the bottom place preceded by internet. Cinema takes the 4th place and digital radio 5th with digital TV securing the 7th place on the list of 10 mediums.

With the continuous transition of media in the Middle East, the region’s overall ad spend has flown to rocketing heights, a trend that’s strangely contrary to the global downward trend in ad spending that reigns globally today as a result of financial downturn. According to a study by ZenithOptimedia, advertising spending in the Middle East is expected to grow by 5.3 per cent next year, while spending in developed markets is expected to shrink by 2.9 per cent. “The Middle East’s expected performance is part of a broader trend of advertising spending in developing markets outperforming developed ones next year, growing by 7.8 per cent as a whole while North America, western Europe and Japan contract, the UK media agency’s quarterly report showed,” says a report in The National newspaper. According to the report, spending growth for the Middle East was forecast to be down by 20.6 per cent this year, but it is expected to recover to 10.3 per cent growth by 2011, more than the 9.8 per cent total growth for developing markets expected that year.