If there’s one thing that I can give Microsoft credit for it’s getting me excited about the future of technology. Even though Bill Gates disappointed me with his “future” segment at CES 2008, I would say that Microsoft has redeemed themselves with a presentation that they gave at MIX08.
I’ve embedded the video below, and its purpose is to show you what technology advancements in the health care field would mean for employees and consumers alike. Almost everyone in the video has unreasonably thin devices that they carry around, and nearly every table and wall is an interactive touch screen computer. I don’t think that we’ll be seeing this stuff in hospitals for a little while, but it’s intriguing nevertheless…
One of the most interesting parts that I found in the video was shown towards the end with about 40 seconds left (3 minutes and 25 seconds into it). It’s the digital wallet that is a single card, and after unlocking it with your fingerprint you can flip through your credit cards to choose which one to use. There was an uncontrollable amount of drool flowing from my mouth after seeing that. 
Something I always like to point out with videos like this is that they are a lot like concept cars. To actually implement something like this would cost an insane amount of money, but by showing this to consumers Microsoft can figure out what areas they find the most important and useful. Then they can work at finding an affordable way to implement those things.
[via istartedsomething]
….yet the pretty girl still had to open the door by herself!
Ryan, Ryan, Ryan *shakes head* I almost feel sorry for you being sucked in by this kinda thing. Granted, you make the point of comparing these videos to concept cars, but you’re still getting sucked into them. They are vapour-videos. This kind stuff is pure fantasy. If I had to shoot a comparable video of my day-to-day tech experiences, it’d be things not working, incompatibilities, explorer crashes, strange html behaviours, tech frustrations and so on. These videos (they have them every year) are just wank videos. Nothing more. It’s like watching Jurassic Park and then asking where the park is located in real life. It’s f-i-c-t-i-o-n. I hear you when you say you get excited about this stuff, but it’s just hype from a marketing department with a large budget, man! Peace
@Michael Dobrofsky:
I don’t see where Ryan is wrong. He has said all along this is something that could happen in “the future”. It could be a “Jurassic Park” down the road, if the creative juices at Microsoft don’t dry up.
Accepting that Microsoft doesn’t have a good record of churning up immaculate software, they have been able to come up with the Surface computer which in my opinion is pretty neat.
URL: [microsoft.com]
Regards,
Omar.-
Boy! It doesn’t take much to impress you eh Ryan? Excuse me for being a jaded Gen Xer but I don’t find anything in that video intriguing. Most of the ideas in the trailer look as if they were ripped off from the movie trailer for any modern sci-fi flick. Microsoft has been selling us this “utopian” vision of the future since the mid-eighties yet none of it has come to fruition, so much for letting them have “the freedom to innovate”. To paraphrase, “To actually implement something like this would cost an insane amount of money, but by showing this to consumers Microsoft can fool some people into thinking that they can still innovate”. If you want innovation look elsewhere.
This is so awesome. It has something Apple-ish to it.
I’m assuming there is no very very loose time table for this stuff…..
I don’t know what to make of it, it’s cool on one end…but way to far fetched on the other. Very neat concept though.
Surface doesn’t exist in real life, yet. Until I am using Surface (or anything deemed cool or futuristic), it’s vapourware, Omar.
Ah, but Michael, Microsoft Surface is like $10 million…just because you haven’t seen it, doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.
I had the opportunity to see two of the “vapourware” units at the SIGGRAPH conference in San Diego this summer and I assure you, they’re real and VERY cool!
I don’t expect that these things will become a reality for a very long time. And while you talk about things not working correctly, incompatibilities, and crashes you have to think about one thing: Stuff like this could all be designed by one company, such as Microsoft. All of the devices in the video look as though they are designed to perform one function. If they just had to focus on devices that served one primary purpose without needing to support third party software and hardware then it will be WAY more stable. Think about how often your iPod crashes…I know I’ve only had that happen a handful of times over the last several years of owning them. That’s because Apple can focus on creating a strong product that has just a handful of purposes.
I actually disagree with that. Microsoft has done several of these videos before none of which remind me of the stuff that I see in the Sci-Fi movies. In fact I wouldn’t be surprised if the Sci-Fi movies take ideas from videos like this.
I definitely wouldn’t classify it as vapourware just because you haven’t seen it in real life. That would be like saying that a Ferrari doesn’t exist simply because you haven’t seen it. Places like the Sheraton Hotel are supposed to be getting it this Spring.