Government Technology - June 2008 - (Page 18)

1 Intuitive Interface: The Power of Touch It’s pretty ridiculous that we still use keyboards. It’s kind of like trying to fly an F-22 fighter jet with the controls used by the Red Baron. Keyboards are unfriendly and unintuitive. But for more than a century, nobody has come up with a seriously viable alternative — until now. When Microsoft Surface debuted last year, it represented the first significant move toward a more immersive style of interface. Gone are keyboards and mice; a touchsensitive screen replaces them. Commands are executed by touching, objects are moved by dragging and art is made by digital finger-painting. Surface’s guts aren’t all that impressive — a PC running With Microsoft Surface, photo Windows Vista, a projector editing becomes and some cameras — packaged a literal snap. inside a table. What’s impresGrab an image sive is how Microsoft organized with your thumb these ordinary elements into on one corner something extraordinary. and middle ﬁnger “Surface uses a series of on the opposite cameras underneath the tablecorner, snap top to see objects,” said Kyle and — voilà! Warnick, group marketing — the image has manager for Microsoft Surface. been reduced to “Hand gestures and touch — postage-stamp size. these user inputs are then processed with a standard Vista PC inside, and using rear projection, the input is displayed on the surface of the device.” The cool part happens when the inputs are displayed. Surface completely changes the way a user interacts with a computer because it can recognize more than fourdozen simultaneous, unique touches. At the 2008 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, Microsoft, known more for force-feeding products down consumers’ throats than beauty and innovation, showcased the elegance of Surface. Transferring digital photos from a camera to computer, for example, becomes as easy as dragging your finger across the surface. Photo editing is equally simple: Want the photo larger? “Grab” the corners and pull. Music files work the same way. If you have a Zune digital music player, you can organize your music as easily as CDs. But Surface is more than just an elaborate media center. The apparent limitlessness of applications is a pleasure to imagine. Microsoft initially hopes to deploy the technology in hospitality and leisure spaces; hotels and restaurants are likely candidates. As shown in Microsoft’s CES demonstration, diners could eat their meals on the Surface tabletop, and along the way, the PC would recognize the specially tagged dishware and inform customers about the origins of their food and wine. Afterward, the bill would be paid on Surface by simply placing a credit card on-screen. “Right now we’re focusing with our current partners — T-Mobile, Harrah’s, » 2 Starwood, IGT — in the retail, leisure and entertainment industries,” Warnick said. “Since announcing Surface, we’ve received more than 2,000 inquiries from 50 countries around the world across 25 different industries. The possibilities are endless, and we believe that over time, surface computing will be pervasive in many industries and even the public sector.” How the public sector would utilize Surface remains to be seen. However, it’s easy to imagine Surface in DMVs or social services offices, where customers might handle transactions through the touch interface. Other applications might be GIS-related or even, heretofore unimagined document management software. Is Software the New Hardware? Cloud Computing: JUNE_08 Surface is all about making the user computer experience more personal and tangible. Cloud computing, on the other hand, seeks to do the opposite by taking what we do further into the digital ether. You’ve probably heard all the terms — grid computing, distributed computing and utility computing, cluster computing, on-demand computing. Although they don’t mean the same thing, fundamentally the terms describe something similar: the concept of using another entity’s infrastructure to enhance your own capability. In June 2005, Government Technology published a story on utility and grid computing titled Witnessing an Evolution, also available at www.govtech.com/gt/94421. The grid is a theoretical network of devices, most of which use only a fraction of their computing power at any time. The idea — that’s now often practiced — is to concentrate that excess processing power and focus it on a large problem. Put another way, a major problem is “distributed” across a network of capacity. Stanford University’s Folding@home project is one of the finest examples of distributed computing. Windows PC, Linux and Mac users, as well as Sony PlayStation 3 owners, can participate in the initiative by leaving their Internet-con- 18 http://www.govtech.com/gt/94421 http://www.govtech.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Government Technology - June 2008

Government Technology - June 2008 Contents Point of View The Last Mile Big Picture On the Scene Four Questions For... 3 Technologies That May Change Your Job ...And Your Life Loosening Medicaid's Grip Better Living Through Technology Immersive Itineraries Help Yourself Taking the Bait Shared Connection Up Close Spectrum Products Personal Computing signal:noise Digital Communities Contents Digital Tactics for a U.S. Recession E-Dilemma Stifling Community Innovation Leadership Interview Estonia Becomes E-Stonia If It Were Up to Me …

Government Technology - June 2008

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