Microsoft Surface 2 made an appearance at CES 2011 yesterday, and it’s sounding like a big improvement over the original – the technology is more compact, vastly improved, and cheaper to produce. All good news. Instead of being a massive block, it’s a relatively thin tablet topped by thick Gorilla Glass, the same stuff that protects the screens of iPhones and iPod Touches. It sits on 4 legs like an actual table, as opposed to a large block.
The new unit is a collaboration between Microsoft and Samsung, and is known as the Samsung SUR40 For Microsoft Surface.
The technology is based on Pixel Sense – in effect, each pixel of the display acts as a camera, giving it pixel-by-pixel touch recognition for amazing accuracy. All those pixel-cameras also allow for some neat tricks on the side, like the ability to place a piece of paper on the table top and have the Surface scan it instantly and accurately. Naturally this also lets it recognize fingers, hands, and objects placed on the screen, enabling vision-based interaction without the cameras sported by the first incarnation of Surface.
Check out a quick (silent) video of the technology below!
That’s dead-sexxy! Is that the same tech they were demoing with the RPG table a couple of years ago?
The iPod Touch doesn’t use gorilla glass, only the iPhone 4 does