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Microsoft's little-screen, big-screen interactive future

Big and little screens interacting. That's Microsoft's vision of a collaborative future nirvana.

Brooke Crothers Former CNET contributor
Brooke Crothers writes about mobile computer systems, including laptops, tablets, smartphones: how they define the computing experience and the hardware that makes them tick. He has served as an editor at large at CNET News and a contributing reporter to The New York Times' Bits and Technology sections. His interest in things small began when living in Tokyo in a very small apartment for a very long time.
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Brooke Crothers
Microsoft's vision of a wall-spanning Surface will tap to share data with tablets.
Microsoft's vision of a wall-spanning Surface that can be tapped to share data with tablets. Microsoft

Giant interactive surfaces will complement the more mobile variety of today. That's how Microsoft sees the future.

Walk up to a massive interactive screen with a Surface tablet, tap it, and, voila, now you're working on the big screen. Or project your Windows phone screen onto a larger surface.

The point of "Microsoft's Future Vision: Live, Work, Play" (see below), a concept video that describes how we'll live in five to ten years, is that there is fluid interaction between touch surfaces and devices of all sizes.

The video debuted as the company opened its doors today on a new Envisioning Center where it looks at how technologies will shape our lives. It all fits in with Microsoft's longstanding vision of the "Home of the Future."

Those large Microsoft vertical touch surfaces are not unlike the so-called Multi-Touch Collaboration Wall used by news networks now.

And it's worth noting that the original Surface concept (now called PixelSense) was a table, not the 10.6-inch tablet we have today.

Another footnote: Intel promoted a similar idea a few years back, dubbed "Carry Small, Live Large."

It all sounds great, but one has to wonder if only people like Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates will be able to afford it.

[Via The Seattle Times ]