If you like the way you can handle your iPhone by deft finger maneuvers, you’re going to love the future of Windows. The next version of Windows — currently named Windows 7 — will drive all kinds of devices with a similar technology.
Microsoft demonstrated its multi-touch technology at the D: All Things Digital conference, sponsored by The Wall Street Journal, where Microsoft Vice President Julie Larson-Green used her fingers to draw a rudimentary landscape on a Dell laptop.
“You are going to see this in all different sizes and shapes of computers,” she said.
The technology should be a natural for image editing and navigating online maps, Microsoft said. Larson-Green demonstrated manipulating an online map to find a nearby Starbucks.
Microsoft actually demonstrated the technology at last year’s D conference as a way to deploy touch in tabletops and kiosk-like displays. In that context, Microsoft is calling the technology Surface. And while Larson-Green’s demo focused on manipulating a traditional PC, Microsoft envisions touchscreens implemented in all kinds of ways, Chris Flores, a Microsoft product director, wrote on the official Windows Vista blog.
“Surface harnesses touch and multi-touch capabilities to provide users with a natural way to interact directly with computing devices,” Flores wrote. “Expect to see the table-like Surface devices in hotels, retail establishments, restaurants and public entertainment venues.”
Apple’s iPhone may be the most obvious mainstream device sporting multi-touch, but touch-based interfaces are everywhere, including laptop touch pads, cell phones, remote controls and GPS devices, Flores said. “What becomes even more compelling is when this experience is delivered to the PC — on a wide variety of Windows notebooks, in all-in-one PCs, as well as in external monitors. In working with our broad ecosystem of hardware and software manufactures, we’re excited to be showing some of the great work and…