Microsoft Surface: The computer as your living room table

Microsoft Surface is a new table that lets you perform everyday computer functions on its surface.

Microsoft unveils it today at the D:All Things Digital Conference, and says it will change the way we interact with computers. It lets the computer become a piece of furniture. You can walk into a coffee house, order a drink upon it. You can drop your camera upon it, and a WiFi card can connect to the table’s computer and download your photos on it. You can then use your fingers to expand the photos right there on its screen.

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The surface is 30-inch display, and its touch-screen responds to the hands of anyone sitting around it. Under it is an Internet connected computer with a Widows Vista operating system, powered by an Intel chip. An image projector shines images onto a clear acrylic tabletop.

See the demos of it here. You can do things like tap on it, and have a menu come up, transfer the images on the screen and send them as email. The possibilities are numerous. It will cost $5,000 to $10,000 at first. It took five years to make. On first glance, this product has a practical feel to it — and at a price point that should save it from becoming another white elephant.

Dean Takahashi of the Mercury News has more details.