Surface

And here I thought Apple would get something big out using this technology first... but nope. Microsoft beat them to it.

Microsoft Surface

Product Overview: Surface is the first commercially available surface computing platform from Microsoft Corporation. It turns an ordinary tabletop into a vibrant, interactive surface. The product provides effortless interaction with digital content through natural gestures, touch and physical objects. In essence, it’s a surface that comes to life for exploring, learning, sharing, creating, buying and much more. Soon to be available in restaurants, hotels, retail and public entertainment venues, this experience will transform the way people shop, dine, entertain and live.

Description: Surface is a 30-inch display in a table-like form factor that’s easy for individuals or small groups to interact with in a way that feels familiar, just like in the real world. Surface can simultaneously recognize dozens and dozens of movements such as touch, gestures and will be able to recognize actual unique objects that have identification tags similar to bar codes.

Surface will ship to partners with a portfolio of basic applications, including photos, music, virtual concierge and games, which can be customized to provide their customers with unique experiences.

(via Gizmodo)

Of course, it has a pretty hefty price tag and is intended to be used in a kiosk kind of form at hotels, malls and other public places like that. But it won't be all that long until this sort of thing is in other stuff.... including of course the iPhone next month, although it won't do quite the same things as this table thing.

But I bet you I see my first iPhone in person before I see my first Surface in person.

Abulsme - Wed, 30 May 2007, 06:56:00 UTC

I hate to burst your bubble but HP Labs had already shwon this in February of 2006:
http://news.com.com2300-1008_3-6041767-1.html

and besides Iphones will be in the market first for real, so as my freind Steve said "Iphone BITCH!" :P

http://news.com.com/2300-1008_3-6041767-1.html

Oops....

A bunch of people had shown technology like this. I posted about some of the wall (rather than table based) demos a few months ago. The difference here was that it was an actual product announcement with an announced shipping date.

Of course, indeed, the iPhone will be the first mass use of this sort of tech. But on a different scale. It'll be interesting to see how much this sort of thing takes off (or not).