What is SURFACE COMPUTING?

Surface computing at its most basic is an attempt to make the use of a computer better match the way we interact with other things in our environments as well as better interacting with those things and allowing for far less time thinking about how we interact with our computers so more energy can be put into how we use them.

The most common and popular type of surface computing is that of touch screen monitors of the type that can be found on many modern phones. These are also common in many businesses where untrained workers are expected to use a computer. Until recently though these touch screen monitors were really little more than a replacement of the mouse. You could still only point at one thing at a time, and it wasn't even as good as a mouse because you can't right click or highlight things without using a keyboard.

More recently though both Microsoft and Apple have come up with new ways to use surface computing.

Microsoft's plan is a device called Microsoft Surface which takes the form of a large table and would be used in places such as hotels and casinos or board rooms. The key difference between this and other similar devices is the multi touch system. This allows users to use both hands to manipulate things such as photos, as well as the use of hand gestures and even physical gestures. Other features on the Microsoft surface allows for wireless communicates between devices so things like phones, cameras and laptops can sync with the table and move data between them effortlessly.