Problems with Surface include:
* A very expensive table - how much, $3,000 to start?
* Spill safe? Is this like the rust-proofing on a new car?
* I have a 4-year old. What happens when he takes non-erasable
Sharpie to my new Surface table?
* Drivers? Yeah, right, it'll work right out of the box....
* I once had an landlady with a cat named Ollie. One of Ollie's many
talents was changing cable channels by rolling on the cable box. Why is
a cat on the cable box? Because it's warm. How warm is my $3,000
Surface table? Will it be able to recognize and ignore leaping pets and
unruly children?
* So, is it just a big input device? Will it replace my scanner?
What will it be used for in junior high school - will some idiot kid try
to scan their body parts and mail it to friends?
* Interoperability - with my iPod (sorry, Zune - this is Microsoft
we're talking about), with my Mac, with my television, Tivo and 5.1
system?
* Security - will it need a Faraday Cage to product me from
electronic snooping? Is that built-in or at an extra cost? Maybe
someone can weld one for me at Burning Man.
Just a few thoughts....
Mark Andrews
-----Original Message-----
From: Next generation catalogs for libraries
[mailto:NGC4LIB_at_listserv.nd.edu] On Behalf Of Bernd T. Wunsch
Sent: Wednesday, May 30, 2007 3:04 AM
To: NGC4LIB_at_listserv.nd.edu
Subject: [NGC4LIB] A Next Generation Tool for Libraries.
Hi, Microsoft just launched it's new "Surface" Technology. It's
basically Jeff Han's Multi-Touch research put into Action.
This platform has the nice capability of "scanning" the items you put
onto the surface, and creating interactions with them, by beeing a super
high-tech touchscreen as well. This of course means that in a few years
time, we better have these things all over our libraries, so people can
interact with our book catalogs just by putting a book they like (or
don't like) on to a surface, and then browse on from there. (Like the
Microsoft video's do with phones).
As Karen Coyle put's it: "librarians today are not using the best tool
for the job." I would like to add that we need to get technology (new
tools) INTO our library, and not just focus on how we get all of our
library Material crammed into computers. When we guide people to finding
books, we simply point to a computer in the library, and tell them to
use the SAME tool as they could have done from home. This definitely
doesn't add to the Library Coolness Factor. Next time our patrons visit
our library, we should better have some kind of "wow-factor" which they
couldn't get at home.
Jeff Han's original: (youtube video's are out there too).
http://cs.nyu.edu/~jhan/ftirtouch/
The new Microsoft Thing (with flash9 video goodness)
http://www.microsoft.com/surface/
- Bernd.
Received on Wed May 30 2007 - 11:43:01 EDT