Promised Microsoft Tablet 'No Thicker Than Sheet of Glass' 352
Barence writes Microsoft will deliver a touchscreen PC that is 'no thicker than a sheet of glass' within the next three years, according to the company's principal researcher. The device will be the next generation of Microsoft's Surface project, which currently houses a touchscreen PC in a deep cabinet that uses cameras to detect hand gestures and objects placed on the screen. According to Microsoft's Bill Buxton, 'Surface will become no thicker than a sheet of glass. It's not going to have any cameras or projectors because the cameras will be embedded in the device itself.' Microsoft is developing a new screen technology to make this possible. 'The best way to think about it is like a big LCD where there's a fourth pixel in every triad. So there's red, green, and blue pixels giving you light, and a fourth pixel which is a sensor that will capture stuff,' Buxton claims in an interview with The Globe and Mail."
sheet of glass from a large aquarium? (Score:2, Funny)
how thick can glass be?
Sheet of glass? (Score:1, Funny)
"No thicker than a sheet of glass"
I've never seen a sheet of glass a Microsoft researcher couldn't outwit.
No thicker than... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:will believe when i see it (Score:5, Funny)
what ever happened to the Origami Project?
It folded.
Hey! (Score:5, Funny)
Nobody buy an iPad!
Let's all wait for this promised invention from Microsoft, which will be much better than anything we can get today, and is coming Real Soon Now!
Patent Infringement? (Score:5, Funny)
a fourth pixel which is a sensor that will capture stuff
Didn't someone here on Slashdot have a patent titled, "A Method and Process of Doing Things with Stuff" . . . ?
It looks like Microsoft might have an intellectual property problem here . . .
Re:No thicker than... (Score:5, Funny)
A sheet of glass like in a picture frame (2mm) or like in an Aquarium (Several cm's).
Marketing: "I said it'll be no thicker than a sheet of glass."
I+D: "That's retarded, we're not even close."
CEO: "Didn't the nuclear bunkers from those desert tests had a window towards the explosion?"
Marketing: "Half as thick as a sheet of glass!"
Re:No thicker than... (Score:5, Funny)
Windows on Window? (Score:2, Funny)
Does that mean we can have windows running on a window?
Re:cameras are in the pixels now (Score:2, Funny)
That begs the question,* why isn't this tagged 'telescreen'?
*I'm in ur language, trollin' ur pedants.
Re:No thicker than... (Score:1, Funny)
We're talking about Microsoft here, not Adobe.
I can't wait! (Score:5, Funny)
This is great. I can't wait to get one. I will carry it in my backpack while I fly around in my jet pack which will be powered by cold fusion.
Typical Microsoft (Score:1, Funny)
"It's the thickness. Once we figure this out it's game over!"
It's the software, stupid.
Re:how thick? (Score:5, Funny)
My favorite is from the show How It's Made.
They said, "when complete it weighs 10 pounds, about the weight of a full-grown cat."
For the next 2 years, my roomates and I refered to weights in terms of full-grown cats.
Re:I can't wait! (Score:2, Funny)
Never wear a jetpack and a backpack at the same time.
Re:I can't wait! (Score:4, Funny)
This is great. I can't wait to get one. I will carry it in my backpack while I fly around in my jet pack which will be powered by cold fusion.
To make things even better, you'll be able to play Duke Nukem Forever on it!
Georgia Aquarium (Score:5, Funny)
Maybe they could call it... (Score:5, Funny)
I know of other MS products that resemble a (fragile) sheet of glass. Windows, anyone?
Re:No thicker than... (Score:5, Funny)
30cm? That's silly, why didn't they go with transparent aluminum? Aquariums have been using it since '86...
Re:Doesn't anyone check on marketting? (Score:5, Funny)
I am a pedantic type with an axe to grind, and even I knew that they obviously meant the first thing that would occur to most people’s minds when they thought of a pane of glass.
The part that I considered an atrocious abuse of language was the part where he claimed that there will be four pixels per triad. He could have just said that instead of using triads of pixels (3 pixels per group... red, green, and blue) they will have tetrads: 4 pixels per group; red, green, blue, and an extra 4th pixel that is a simple light sensor.
But no... his triads go to FOUR.
Re:Windows on Window? (Score:4, Funny)
Does that mean we can have windows running on a window?
What a pane.
Re:will believe when i see it (Score:5, Funny)
It looked good on paper.
Re:Bad article, Really bad summary (Score:3, Funny)
Re:With x86....else is it really Windows? (Score:4, Funny)
It's a marketing problem.
Apple users don't expect iPads and iPhones to run Macintosh software, even if these devices run a flavour of OSX - Apple doesn't call it that - they call it iOS, so no one expects OS X programs to run on it. If Microsoft were to not call their mobile OS 'Windows', then the confusion would go away. Instead of calling it 'Windows Mobile' which kind of gives the expectation that it's just Windows and you can run desktop software on it, they could call it something else. Perhaps 'Doors'.
Re:sheet of glass from a large aquarium? (Score:2, Funny)