Bill Gates has demoed a vertical version of Microsoft’s coffee table computer, the Surface, at the company’s CEO summit.
Describing a future where cheap touchscreens will cover various surfaces in homes as well as offices, Gates said that he expects the technology to be “absolutely pervasive” in the near future.
Calling the Touch Wall, “new, risky and exciting”, Gates told attendees: “Our view is that all the surfaces – horizontal surfaces, vertical surfaces – will eventually have an inexpensive screen-display capability and software that sees what you’re doing there, so it’s completely interactive”, he told attendees at the summit.
Standing beside a 4 x 6ft screen, fitted with a camera to detect touch, Gates said that the technology is still at the research-and-development stage, but the company is using components of its interactivity at all levels, adding that he expects this technology to be affordable.
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“This kind of whiteboard, with a little bit of hardware advance over the next couple of years, will not be an expensive thing, and that’s why we’re saying that it will be absolutely pervasive,” Gates claimed.
watch the demo video
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPrfqdl55D0&NR=1