Microsoft Buys Multi-Touch Pioneer Perceptive Pixel

theodp writes "Back in 2006, a post on Jeff Han's multi-touch screen technology — a real TED crowd-pleaser — gave Slashdot readers a taste of the iPhone and iPad future. Han spun off his NYU Research into a company called Perceptive Pixel which, among other things, gave the world CNN's Amazing Magic Wall. On Monday, Steve Ballmer announced that Microsoft is acquiring Perceptive Pixel, which not only means you'll be able to run Windows 8 on an 82-inch touchscreen, but that the Apple v,. Motorola Mobility lawsuit is about to get more interesting!"

More interesting?

[Sez Zero]

If by "more interesting" you mean "more tedious, unnecessary and annoying", then yes, yes it will.

Re:Remember the gorilla arm syndrome

[19thNervousBreakdown]

Who took them away from you? There's plenty of phones with buttons, plenty of feature phones, and if you really want to get medieval, you can even find phones that can barely text. How about you stop trying to stifle things you don't understand?

Re:Remember the gorilla arm syndrome

[segedunum]

Microsoft have never got this, and they probably never will. First they tried to turn phones into Windows desktops with a start button, now they're trying to turn Windows into a smartphone.

Re:Apple Didn't Invent Multi-Touch?

[Theophany]

No, no, no. You got it all wrong. Apple comes up with a space-age idea like multi-touch, waits for somebody intelligent to invent it and THEN claims it as their own and sues the little upstart back into the stone age. The mistake everybody makes is that just because somebody else actually put the pieces together and did the hard work doesn't mean they invented it. To invent something, you have to think about it and then patent the thought you had with some rough scribbles on a napkin. I've actually invented and patented hovercars. I'm just waiting for somebody else to make them so that I can sue them.

It's kind of brilliant. Y'know, in a total bastard kind of way.

Re:Remember the gorilla arm syndrome

[Missing.Matter]

Cause no one else would fail to see that using multi-touch on an 84" screen means waving both arms around.

Yeah, I'm failing to see that, especially since I'm watching it in use [youtu.be] and don't see the guy waving around both arms. With your use of the word "waving" you're trying to convey this wild flailing motion, but the actual interaction with the device seems as natural as what I would do on a chalk board.