Question

I saw this question and it got me interested as surface caused a big fuss when Microsoft first showcased it, I worked for Microsoft at the time and we had a few of them in the office but they were always surrounded by people. But snce then I have not heard or seen much of surface, so I have a few questions.

1. Is surface still considered a
   prototype product?

2. What sort of interface does it
   prodive for all the various devices,
   are there regular updates to
   identify new devices such as new
   phone models, or do phones have to
   be preconfigured with some sort of
   tag or id for surface to recognise
   it and provide an interface between
   them?

3. What is the security on surface
   like? Microsoft showcased it in
   public places such as Bars, with the
   fancy demo of putting your credit
   card on the table to pick up the
   tab.

4. Does Microsoft provide a emulated
   platform for developing on surface,
   any links guides would be great and is it .NET?

Answer 1

1) Microsoft Surface is not a prototype. It is released in a first version.

2) Inside the Microsoft Surface is a regular Winodws Vista computer with usb, wifi and ethernet connections. So basically anything you can do with a normal computer with these interfaces you can do on Microsoft Surface. Since Surface contains a Visual Recognition System with cameras it is posible to “see” what’s placed upon the surface. You can then use visual tags to recognize objects.

3) Security is a big topic. The demo you saw used a tag behind the card to identify the user.

4) There is a Surface SDK with a simulator available and it’s all .NET! Download it here:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=3db8987b-47c8-46ca-aafb-9c3b36f43bcc&displaylang=en

Regards,

Björn Eriksen
http://surfacedeveloper.blogspot.com