I feel a change coming on

My company was among those that recently exhibited an application for Microsoft's Surface technology, demonstrating a program for Tesco Wine Club that was developed in association with IdentityMine. I like Surface a lot: it's terrific technology that makes what Microsoft calls ‘massive multi-touch' a reality by interpreting your taps and gestures in a format that resembles a coffee table.

It enabled Tesco to have something uniquely collaborative and interactive; something that could persuade people to find out more about their tastes in wine, and there are plenty of other interesting applications out there too.

Microsoft has done an excellent job in making a complex version 1.0 system actually work and, if anything, I believe that some people might even be underestimating its potential role. There's more to Surface than a bit of corporate branding in your reception: you're starting to look at a way of using applications that are rich and support touch and even voice as ways to interact. It's a potent mixture, especially backed up with today's enterprise search software as virtual interfaces bring search to life.

You could also think of the Surface theme reappearing in a system for home grocery shopping without a web browser or the need to touch a keyboard or mouse. Then again it could be for a system that is like knowledge management on steroids, with spider diagrams, mind maps and text interlinked with images and videos that can be moved around and mashed up with each other. Or it could of course become a fantastic new generation of kiosk technology that taps wireless links to replace store product listings systems.

On the other hand, I'm not daft enough to bet the farm on Surface, nor any of the current crop of new technologies. Surface systems are still expensive and aimed at a niche audience, although I'm sure some of the underlying technologies will find their way into other products.

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