Surface Computing SURFACE COMPUTING A SEMINAR REPORT Submitted by CHITHIRA SAJEEV In partial fulfillment for the award of the degree Of B-TECH DEGREE In COMPUTER SCIENCE & ENGINEERING SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING COCHIN UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY KOCHI- 682022 JULY, 2010 Division of Computer Science, SOE 1 Surface Computing Division of Computer Engineering School of Engineering Cochin University of Science & Technology Kochi-682022 ____________________________________________________ _____ CERTIFICATE Certified that this is a bonafide record of the seminar work titled Surface computing Done by Chithira Sajeev of VII semester Computer Science & Engineering in the year 2010 in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the award of Degree of Bachelor of Technology in Computer Science & Engineering of Cochin University of Science & Technology Dr.David Peter S Deepa Paul Head of the Division Seminar Guide Division of Computer Science, SOE 2 Surface Computing ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I thank GOD almighty for guiding me throughout the seminar. I would like to thank all those who have contributed to the completion of the seminar and helped me with valuable suggestions for improvement. I am extremely grateful to Dr. David Peter, HOD, Division of Computer Science, for providing me with best facilities and atmosphere for the creative work guidance and encouragement. I would like to thank my coordinator, Mr.Sudheep Elayidom, Sr. Lecturer, Division of Computer Science, and my guide Mrs. Deepa Paul , Lecturer , Division of Computer Science , SOE for all help and support extended to me. I thank all the Staff members of my college and my friends for extending their cooperation during my seminar. Above all I would like to thank my parents without whose blessings; I would not have been able to accomplish my goal. CHITHIRA SAJEEV Division of Computer Science, SOE 3 Surface Computing ABSTRACT The name Surface comes from " surface computing ," and Microsoft envisions the coffee-table machine as the first of many such devices. Surface computing uses a blend of wireless protocols, special machine-readable tags and shape recognition to seamlessly merge the real and the virtual world — an idea the Milan team refers to as "blended reality." The table can be built with a variety of wireless transceivers, including Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and (eventually) radio frequency identification (RFID) and is designed to sync instantly with any device that touches its surface. It supports multiple touch points – Microsoft says "dozens and dozens" -- as well as multiple users simultaneously, so more than one person could be using it at once, or one person could be doing multiple tasks. The term "surface" describes how it's used. There is no keyboard or mouse. All interactions with the computer are done via touching the surface of the computer's screen with hands or brushes, or via wireless interaction with devices such as smartphones, digital cameras or Microsoft's Zune music player. Because of the cameras, the device can also recognize physical objects; for instance credit cards or hotel "loyalty" cards. For instance, a user could set a digital camera down on the tabletop and wirelessly transfer pictures into folders on Surface's hard Division of Computer Science, SOE 4 Surface Computing drive. Or setting a music player down would let a user drag songs from his or her home music collection directly into the player, or between two players, using a finger – or transfer mapping information for the location of a restaurant where you just made reservations through a Surface tabletop over to a smartphone just before you walk out the door. Division of Computer Science, SOE 5 Surface Computing TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER TITLE PAGE ABSTRACT i LIST OF FIGURES ii 1. INTRODUCTION 1 2. WHAT IS SURFACE COMPUTING? 3 2.1 How It All Started 4 2.2 Hardware Design 5 2.3 From Prototype to Product 6 3. THE UNDERLYING TECHNOLOGY 7 3.1 Multi Touch User Interaction 7 3.2 Tangible User Interface 7 3.3 Multi User Interface 7 3.4 Object Recognition 7 3.5 Technology Behind it 7 4. MICROSOFT SURFACE OVERVIEW 10 Division of Computer Science, SOE 6 Surface Computing 4.1 The Hardware 10 4.1.1 Screen 11 4.1.2 Infra Red 11 4.1.3 CPU 11 4.1.4 Projector 11 4.2 System Software 13 4.3 Working 14 5. FEATURES 15 5.1 Multi Touch Display 15 5.2 Perceptive Pixel 16 6. APPLICATIONS 18 6.1 Water 18 6.2 Video Puzzle 19 6.3 Paint 20 6.4 Music 21 6.5 Photos 22 6.6 Dining 23 6.7 Minor Reports of Surface Computers 24 7. FUTURE SCOPE AND CONCLUSION 25 REFERENCES 27 Division of Computer Science, SOE 7 Surface Computing LIST OF FIGURES TITLE PAGENO Fig 2.1 Surface Computing in 2003 5 Fig 2.2 Microsoft Surface Today 5 Fig 3.1 Total Internal Reflection Technology 8 Fig 4.1 Microsoft Surface Hardware 11 Fig 5.1 Multi Touch 15 Fig 5.2 Demo of Perceptive Pixels Multi Touch 17 Fig 6.1 Application In Microsoft Surface 18 Fig 6.2 Video Puzzle 19 Fig 6.3 Paint Application 20 Fig 6.4 Music Application In Microsoft Surface 21 Fig 6.5 Photos 22 Fig 6.6 Dining 23 Fig 6.7 Apple ROSIE Surface Computer 24 Fig 6.8 Future Application of Surface Computer 25 Division of Computer Science, SOE 8 Surface Computing CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION Surface computing is the term for the use of a specialized computer GUI in which traditional GUI elements are replaced by intuitive, everyday objects. Instead of a keyboard and mouse, the user interacts directly with a touch-sensitive screen. It has been said that this more closely replicates the familiar hands-on experience of everyday object manipulation Over the past couple of years, a new class of interactive device has begun to emerge, what can best be described as “surface computing”. Two examples are illustrated in this report. They are- • Surface Table top • Perceptive Pixel The Surface table top typically incorporates a rear-projection display coupled with an optical system to capture touch points by detecting shadows from below. Different approaches to doing the detection have been used, but most employ some form of IR illumination coupled with IR cameras. With today’s camera and signal- processing capability, reliable responsive and accurate multi-touch capabilities can be achieved. The multitouch pioneer and his company, Perceptive Pixel , have devoted the better part of two years to building an entirely new multitouch framework from the ground up. Instead of simply mapping multitouch technology to familiar interfaces and devices, Han's goal is far more sweeping: To use the technology as a foundation for an entirely new operating system. Because they are new to most, the tendency in seeing these systems is to assume that they are all more-or-less alike. Well, in a way that is true. But on the other hand, that is perhaps no more so than to say that all ICs are more-or-less alike, since they are black plastic things with feet like centipedes which contain a bunch of transistors and other stuff. In short, the more that you know, the more you can differentiate. But even looking at the two systems in the photo, there is evidence of really significant difference. Division of Computer Science, SOE 9 Surface Computing The really significant difference is that one is vertical and the other is horizontal. Why is this significant? Well, this is one of those questions perhaps best answered by a child in kindergarten. They will tell you that if you put a glass of water on the vertical one, it will fall to the floor, leading to a bout of sitting in the corner. On the other hand, it is perfectly safe to put things on a table. They will stay there. Division of Computer Science, SOE 10 Surface Computing CHAPTER 2 WHAT IS SURFACE COMPUTING? For years engineers and computer technicians have looked for a better way for people to communicate with their computers. Keyboards while feeling natural to many of us has advanced very little beyond the typewriters which have been around for well over a hundred years and though the mouse is a step above that it still takes practice for someone who has never used one to become used to the idea of moving the mouse with it and after years of using a computer many older people still have trouble with the concepts of double clicking, right clicking, dragging, dropping and other techniques that can seem simple to more advanced computer users. The most recent solution, and one that seems likely to stick is that of 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.