We seem to keep getting closer to the computing experience Minority Report introduced with its vision of the future. Touch based computers, or machines which respond to gestures as input are all the rage these days with the software researchers.
Nintendo has put a basic form of it to use in the Nintendo Wii, with much success. Now Microsoft has unveiled another prototype in its drive to create a touch based computing experience known as TouchWall. Like Surface, Microsoft’s tabletop touch based computer, TouchWall responds to user input when they touch a huge glass screen.
Microsoft’s goal is make computing accessible everywhere, whether it is the kitchen, living room, or hallways. Imagine taking the laundry through a hallway and glancing at the wall to your left check if your received any new email. Or, my personal favorite, coming home from work/school with either the Xbox.com or Bungie.net homepage up on a wall so you can easily see if you should boot up the Xbox and group up with friends.
TouchWall is still in beta, and still expensive to build. Right now both it and Surface suffer from the problem computers did several years ago; hardware is costly. Hopefully, the price will go down, and Bill Gates sees this as a probable future.
Let’s hope both the Surface and TouchWall take off and ultimately make it into our homes.
[Via Cnet]
