Microsoft Surface. Wow!

[Plane Sailing]

Incidentally, the first commercial, public, multi-touch device that we're likely to see is probably the Apple iphone - it demonstrates the two-finger scaling of photographs in their demo at http://www.apple.com/iphone

Cheers

 

[Redrobes]

Hang on guys - this is really old stuff !

There is this :-

http://www.touchtable.com/site/index.php

or even this - THIS is the ULTIMATE gaming table...

http://www.ms.northropgrumman.com/images/TerrainTable_FS.pdf


But almost everything that you guys are raving about exists right now. I have been plugging ViewingDale with its hardware accelerated pan and zoom mapping for over a year and there has been scant interest. You can have all that about having your map with grids and monsters on it. It has dynamic character sheets and the dice app rolls 3D dice with physics interactions (That bit is free try it right now !). I actually thought that the videos showed quite a lot of lag on the movement of the simulated photos, and I did not see smooth zoom into those maps at all.

And I am not the only one. Many other of the virtual table tops are creating software that do exactly what this does only you don't get it with the touch panels. Splitting this technology up into the hardware and the software, the hardware has existed for years as a specialist item but the software you can have right now for a few bucks custom made for RPG gaming with all of the art to boot !

This table is neat and of course I want one, but it would not give me anything that I cannot do right now except that it would have to be done with a vertical monitor and a mouse.

And Ashram Bayle - you seriously need to look at some VTT's

http://www.viewing.ltd.uk/cgi-bin/viewingdale.pl?category=pic_page8

 

[jaerdaph]

Wow, this is really amazing, especially the multi-user/multi-input and device recognition capabilites. I can't wait until this makes it into the home. I already want the coffee table and one in my kitchen. It will be just like living on the Enterprise-D!

There is so much potential in this technology - the future is coming

An oversized LCD tablet? Wacom did it years ago. Not news.

Actually, a Walcom tablet is just an oversized mouse.

 

[DonTadow]

Wow, this is really amazing, especially the multi-user/multi-input and device recognition capabilites. I can't wait until this makes it into the home. I already want the coffee table and one in my kitchen. It will be just like living on the Enterprise-D!

There is so much potential in this technology - the future is coming



Actually, a Walcom tablet is just an oversized mouse.

I have a projector setup. My setup cost about 800 total. I have friends who spent anywhere between 1000 to 1800. If this thing falls in price over the next couple of years, it could be in the 1000 to 2500 range, not a bad price. Considering with the projector setup, you have to buy replacement bulbs and get adequate mounting for the projector.

 

[heruca]

Ashram Bayle - you seriously need to look at some VTT's

I concur.

 

[Hand of Evil]

I agree the tech has been around but those are selective items, MS will bring it to everyday business and then the home. Just thinking of the uses for table top games, could be worth millions alone.

 

[Bagpuss]

The surface is able to read data from devices placed on top of it, so you could have a "3D miniatures" with chips in the base that transmit the data to the surface about the character to the application.

You could even roll traditional style dice, which transmit what orientation they land in to the surface. Roll the dice on the surface and the surface then does the calculations for you.

Unfortunately at the price it currently is that's a long way off.

 

[DethStryke]

You could even roll traditional style dice, which transmit what orientation they land in to the surface. Roll the dice on the surface and the surface then does the calculations for you.

Or simply read the number that's face down on the table to determine what number is on the other side...

Man, I haven't been this excited about a piece of new hardware since I got a 2400-baud modem for my C-64!

 

[DMFTodd]

>> Imagine that is your table top. (Minus the text of course.) You double tap your miniature and his character sheet pops up beside him. Maybe you even tap the weapon/attack you intend to use.
Tap the target you wish to attack, then tap the dice to roll. All the math is done, the character sheet for the enemy is updated with the damage...etc. etc.

Imagine? That's how I play already with kloogewerks.

 

[hexgrid]

Hang on guys - this is really old stuff !

It's not that it's completely new, it's that it's a huge step closer to becoming a consumer product.