At FOWD 2009 year, Microsoft were again a lead speaker. In 2008 we were (ahem) treated to a very loooooong and verbose demo of SIlverlight, which I think crashed at one point.
Unperturbed Microsoft returned to FOWD 09 with a slot entitled Watchmen, having been demoing Microsoft Surface in the lobby I was intrigued to see how they would showcase Surface with the comic property.
Now before I go any further, I love Watchmen. Moore’s graphic novel is a classic piece of English literature for me, as complex a narrative as any classic novel. So yes, maybe my heckles were up.
Microsoft gave a half hour long diorama like version of the book, dragging cut-out versions of the characters onscreen, making them a little bigger, shrinking them down. Jiggling them a little. Then dragging them off screen.
For 30 long mins we saw the same weak visual gag recycled. Now aside from massacring the complex plot of the novel, it was the least flattering demo of what should be an exciting product proposition I’ve seen. No mention of Surface’s capability to … take a breath:
- Create applications to recognise and interact with products when placed on screen
- Upload content (video and photo) direct from devices to screen simply by dropping it on the surface
- Allow custom GUIs to fit your creative execution
- Apply a library of texture effects — water / sand — to interations
- Navigation around maps in realtime
- Handwriting recognition
- Sharing content direct from screen with others
No. All we get is scaling cardboard cut-outs. Truly cutting edge, thank you.
I’d sooner have watched this far more informative (yet slightly corporate) Microsoft demo and reclaimed those 30 mins of my life.
Recently I saw an example of gesture based interactivity in the Orange Store on Carnaby Street. You were invited to interact with Orange’s Mobile portal Orange World through an i-tunes coverflow like interface at the front of store. Now I can’t say if that was Surface, but we all could have been more enriched about how to adapt this technology had we seen some real world examples?
Thanks again Windows for another great demo, hey there’s always 2010.
And (more importantly) where was the Tales of the Black Freighter?
Paul
