Vertical Surface
New from those innovative people at Microsoft - a vertical screen, that you touch and interact with. Interesting idea.
Hmm.. haven't we seen something like that before? Or to quote Apple recently - The Wow happened 5 years ago...
posted by Danny Nicholson @ 5/14/2008 09:55:00 PM
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Ah Danny, I think you are being too cynical. This touchwall utilises microsoft's Surface technology, which is a step forward from our current whiteboard technology.
True, the multitouch technology is not unique to Microsoft; Apple use it on the iphone. This however is a big leap in size from a handheld device.
Looking at the picture, I cannot see a projector. Could it be that, at last, we can have a presentation system that doesn't rely upon a data projector? Can we look forward to ditching this dinosaur technology from the 1960s?
Yeah Doug, maybe a little too cynical. I've been accused of that before ;)
I think the innovation will be multitouch and no projector. But again Smart have had back projected boards for a few years and both Promethean has a multi-touch board already on the market.
I think the next big development will be the loss of the projector - as LCD screens get bigger and thinner hopefully it will be possible to have a giant-touch screen that doesn't break the bank. And that is something that is quite exciting.
It's good to see that we are in agreement about the next step being boards without the projector.
Back projection units have always tended to be bulky, not too practical in a class and they still require a projector.
I tried to spot interactive boards without the projector at this year's BETT but saw none apart from a few modified plasma TVs. I failed to spot, if it was there, the product from Promethean.
However, could the Promethean product you refer to be their Activearena? This allows multiple pens to be used on an activboard but ... it still uses pens!! Which still means that if a pen gets broken it cannot be used. If your finger gets broken, you can still use a smartboard!!
I'd also like to add that one advantage of an interactive board without the projector is that the board can be positioned almost anywhere in a room, not just in front of the projector. The board can be moved around (if really necessary) and you can even have more than one board in a room.
All we need next is for the interactive board to be flexible so that it can be rolled up and carried around!
according to the new video I've posted its back projected - so MS still havent got rid of the projector. In essence this is the same as the back projected smartboards.
I was in a school today using touch screen plasma tv's but they are still too small to be really useful. A few more years and they'll be big enough and cheap enough (Sure I've seen something somewhere about an LCD telly that could show an elephant actual size. Was proof of concept, and cost the Earth.. but the tech is out there)
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