So as regular readers know, I love looking ahead and talking about what’s next in the world of the user interface, and more broadly, how people interact with computers.

I have been fascinated with the concept of multi-touch computing for a while. In all honesty, I didn’t think it was going to be a reality for a good while. Watching Jeff Han do his thing, I always get the feeling that the consumer is not going to get their hands dirty for a long time. I still love his stuff, but who needs an 8 foot touch wall? Certainly not the everyday consumer. Also, getting a completely new paradigm (like getting rid of the mouse and keyboard) to take hold, A LOT of different industries have to get together and play nicely. In order to get a lot of companies chatting will take a major player…enter Microsoft.

Microsoft has just unveiled Surface, their take on the multi-touch interface. Now before you read anything else, you owe it to yourself as a geek to go watch the videos on the Surface site. Don’t worry, I’ll wait for you…

Ok, wasn’t that just awesome? Gets my nerd senses all tingly. I mean seriously, don’t you just want one of those phones, or to go to that restaurant?

Now MS says that Surface will be released sometime this winter (which means Christmas), but that will just be a version 1, and will mainly be used in Vegas (naturally). To get all that interoperability will take a good amount of time. That phone has to get built, the software has to get programmed (can I get on that team?), etc. etc.

Microsoft doesn’t have a perfect track record for this kinda stuff (Tablet PC anyone?), but, love ‘em or hate ‘em, if there is a company that can pull this off, it’s the guys at Redmond…or perhaps Apple, but I don’t think I want to put a coffee cup on my iPhone.

What is interesting is the different take that MS is using compared to say Jeff Han. With Surface, you don’t actually touch the screen. Underneath are a bunch of cameras that track what you are doing. This makes the decision to go with a horizontal table make a lot of sense. Also the table design gives the hardware a certain durability that makes it usable in restaurants and such.

Conversely, with Mr. Han’s implementation, you actually touch the screen itself, and it responds not only to touch, but also pressure. All of his prototypes are vertical, and since you actually interface with the screen itself it seems like it would be a bit more fragile. At the same time, his technology would probably me a lot more intimate and might feel more “real”. In the end, there might be room for both, but only time will tell. Either way…very cool stuff.

I will definitely be keeping my ear to the ground on this one…if I find something, y’all will be the first to know.

As you might have guessed, the web is abuzz with Surface stuff. Here are some of the more interesting links.

Popular Mechanics goes behind the scenes.

Seattle PI has a great article.

18 Minute interview with Mark Bolger (Senior Director of Marketing on the Surface project)

Techshout has a brief article about Surface