2) It has to be DLP projected - there's an infrared camera below the screen that captures your touches - which means that there can be no obstruction between the camera and the table top (like, oh, say, a plasma screen).
3) This is a pliant silicon surface and necessary with the sort of tech that Microsoft is implementing. This is somewhat sad, since hobbyists (look up NUIGroup if you are interested) have gotten better results with a pure glass surface (which obviously takes a lot more punishment).
This is the difference between Apple and Microsoft - attention to detail. MS will get the core bullet point features working, but when using it there are so many rough edges and little things that irk you that ultimately you have a negative experience, despite the fact that the machine is perfectly functional.
This is somewhat sad, since hobbyists (look up NUIGroup if you are interested) have gotten better results with a pure glass surface
I think this is what bothers me most about it. There are probably at least a dozen different ways to achieve a display of this type and it seems like this one is compromised in each dimension. This would be entirely reasonable for a hobby project or a Google 20% time style corporate internal project, but it's way short for something with a nearly $20k price tag and tons of very self-flagellating promotion.
In MS's defense these new methods for multi-touch were not known (or even invented) when the Surface was in the initial design stages - the multitouch field is evolving radically month-to-month, it's impossible for a commercial product to keep up.
The most interesting sensing method IMHO right now is the combined emitter-receiver package, where light reflected from touches induce back voltages on the LEDs serving as backlights themselves. This is pretty elegant, and would allow us to use far superior display technology like plasmas and LCDs, not to mention allow the whole thing to finally approach flat screen TV thickness.
It's pretty expensive though - imagine an array of pure-white LEDs big enough to cover your 65" plasma TV... and the electronics to process all of this data.
3) This is a pliant silicon surface and necessary with the sort of tech that Microsoft is implementing. This is somewhat sad, since hobbyists (look up NUIGroup if you are interested) have gotten better results with a pure glass surface (which obviously takes a lot more punishment).
This is the difference between Apple and Microsoft - attention to detail. MS will get the core bullet point features working, but when using it there are so many rough edges and little things that irk you that ultimately you have a negative experience, despite the fact that the machine is perfectly functional.