On Wed, May 30, 2007 at 04:11:25PM +0000, Cesare Marilungo wrote:

Bill Schwab wrote:

...

http://money.cnn.com/2007/05/30/technology/microsoft.reut/index.htm?cnn=yes

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ReacTable

We have something like that at my lab. It is a projector, a camera and a regular table. Much more backward-compatible with pre-existing tables (and probably cheaper):

http://ame.asu.edu/research/SMMS_web/SMMS%20projects.html

Actually, this idea goes way back into the ARPA research community of the 60s and 70s. Maybe the first time it was done was by Mort Bernstein and the RAND tablet guys in the 60s using a very powerful Eidophor projector that could project an image through the translucent RAND tablet (almost melting it!). Nicholas Negroponte and his folks at the Arch-Mac group in the 70s did a very nice and usable table with rear projection, etc., (they also did the first multitouch tablet surface (Chris Herot, et al.)

And, of course, there was a PONG table later on by Atari (but done before I got there).

Cheers,

Alan

At 05:31 AM 5/31/2007, Gary Fisher wrote:

Time to dust off that "Coffee Table eBook" trademark registration.

<g>

(Nice to see the old Pong form factor revived. Hey, didn't Atari perfect table games during Alan's tenure? ;-)

Gary

----- Original Message ----- From: "Bill Schwab" BSchwab@anest.ufl.edu To: squeak-dev@lists.squeakfoundation.org Sent: Wednesday, May 30, 2007 9:38 AM Subject: MS surface computer

Check it out:

http://money.cnn.com/2007/05/30/technology/microsoft.reut/index.htm?cnn=yes

Sorry guys, couldn't resist. Imagine the lawsuits that MS will file now:

"This is not a case of some accidental, unknowing infringement. There is an overwhelming number of flat surfaces supporting objects. Our strategy from everyone in the company has always been to license and not litigate as it relates to Office and Home furniture."

Ok, back to work :)

Bill

Wilhelm K. Schwab, Ph.D. University of Florida Department of Anesthesiology PO Box 100254 Gainesville, FL 32610-0254

Email: bschwab@anest.ufl.edu Tel: (352) 846-1285 FAX: (352) 392-7029

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