Anyone done any Surface development?

Wondering if it's just WPF. If you use VS2008 with Expression Blend. If it uses the ink stuff, since touches would be more ink than mouse.

Etc etc etc

I've made an offer for trade with the surface machine, that is being used as an ottoman, in the room with the chalkboard, that Dan likes to interview people, who's names he cannot pronounce.  As soon as my offer is accepted, I will let you know about my experience programming it.

JoshRoss said:

I've made an offer for trade with the surface machine, that is being used as an ottoman, in the room with the chalkboard, that Dan likes to interview people, who's names he cannot pronounce.  As soon as my offer is accepted, I will let you know about my experience programming it.

I believe it is mostly WPF. The Surface API's add support for tracking the touch points.

No offense, but are there any real customers for Surface yet? It seems premature to be building apps for it when there's no client base.

evildictaitor said:

No offense, but are there any real customers for Surface yet? It seems premature to be building apps for it when there's no client base.

Sheraton is a customer and I know of units being used at MSNBC and a design agency in Australia. However, MSNBC doesn't really count for obvious reasons and the latter is in fact a Microsoft subsidary, gained through the aQuantive purchase. I think the idea needs to mature quite a bit more before it will see mainstream adoption.

tfraser said:

evildictaitor said:

*snip*

Sheraton is a customer and I know of units being used at MSNBC and a design agency in Australia. However, MSNBC doesn't really count for obvious reasons and the latter is in fact a Microsoft subsidary, gained through the aQuantive purchase. I think the idea needs to mature quite a bit more before it will see mainstream adoption.

And even then, it will be mostly companies ordering specific products (we need X, go build it) rather than consumer model (you build X, can we buy a licence?).

evildictaitor said:

tfraser said:

*snip*

And even then, it will be mostly companies ordering specific products (we need X, go build it) rather than consumer model (you build X, can we buy a licence?).

Consequently I can't see development really taking off anytime soon for Surface.

The first feature of Windows 7 we know of is multi-touch capabilities. This will obviously boost the creating of applications that use it. And I can imagine these applications running fine on a Surface.

TommyCarlier said:

evildictaitor said:

*snip*

The first feature of Windows 7 we know of is multi-touch capabilities. This will obviously boost the creating of applications that use it. And I can imagine these applications running fine on a Surface.

http://blogs.msdn.com/surface/archive/2008/08/26/livelabs-shadow-box.aspx

Check this out it looks a lot more that detecting "touches" =)

And I have to say, even though there might not be a "consumer" reason to learn it...it's ALWAYS good to be ahead of the curve on things. It's nice to be a master at something when it becomes popular or your company gets a project, than having to run around searching Google trying to teach yourself something as quick as you can.

Harlequin said:

TommyCarlier said:

*snip*

http://blogs.msdn.com/surface/archive/2008/08/26/livelabs-shadow-box.aspx

Check this out it looks a lot more that detecting "touches" =)

And I have to say, even though there might not be a "consumer" reason to learn it...it's ALWAYS good to be ahead of the curve on things. It's nice to be a master at something when it becomes popular or your company gets a project, than having to run around searching Google trying to teach yourself something as quick as you can.

Yes, surface can do a lot more than detecting touches.  That's one of their primary focuses (and I'm sure their driver presents touch data to the Windows multi-touch libraries or at least will once those libraries are available), but they can also do things with the raw images.  One of the apps that they've demoed is the one for the AT&T store, which lets you pick up a phone and set it on the Surface; the Surface then reads a tag of some kind (probably a UPC or 2D barcode or something) and presents information about the phone on the display.

Wow! A cool application would be having the Surface, get a bounch of pictures then PhotoSynth'em and letting you navigate through it!

However, just imagine sync up an iPod or iPhone just by puting it on top.  It's feasible since both devices has wi-fi.  But I think it is going to happen the same day hell freezes over (more because of Apple than MS).  Meanwhile sync up a Zune maybe just around the corner, if it is not already out there.

(Edit: Yes, just google it, the Surface is meant to sync with the zune)

Raptor

raptor3676 said:

Wow! A cool application would be having the Surface, get a bounch of pictures then PhotoSynth'em and letting you navigate through it!

However, just imagine sync up an iPod or iPhone just by puting it on top.  It's feasible since both devices has wi-fi.  But I think it is going to happen the same day hell freezes over (more because of Apple than MS).  Meanwhile sync up a Zune maybe just around the corner, if it is not already out there.

(Edit: Yes, just google it, the Surface is meant to sync with the zune)

Raptor

I work for IdentityMine and we develop Surface applications using WPF.  We have done some cool demos that were actually featured in Bill Gates Keynote at CES this year.  You can see those demos here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2iT-0z8Xxs

We also have started releasing videos on how to use our libraries to build Surface applications.  You can see how to use our libraries to build physics enabled WPF Surface applications here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_d2u5LhWfY (PS, that is me on the left side of the table).

We are currently working with clients to bring more, exciting Surface applications to market.  I think you would be surprised how many Fortune 500 companies are having Surface applications developed.  I cannot, of course tell you who our clients are and what we are doing for them but I can tell you this, a photo sharing application, much like the one that Raptor3676 speculated about is not far off.

Also, I agree that Surface will not be in the home anytime soon but Windows 7 will bring multi-touch interaction to your home PC soon.

If you require to see my credentials before you take my opinion seriously, look under books on Expression Blend on Sliverlight.net located here: http://silverlight.net/Community/books.aspx

victor gaudioso said:

raptor3676 said:

*snip*

I work for IdentityMine and we develop Surface applications using WPF.  We have done some cool demos that were actually featured in Bill Gates Keynote at CES this year.  You can see those demos here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2iT-0z8Xxs

We also have started releasing videos on how to use our libraries to build Surface applications.  You can see how to use our libraries to build physics enabled WPF Surface applications here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_d2u5LhWfY (PS, that is me on the left side of the table).

We are currently working with clients to bring more, exciting Surface applications to market.  I think you would be surprised how many Fortune 500 companies are having Surface applications developed.  I cannot, of course tell you who our clients are and what we are doing for them but I can tell you this, a photo sharing application, much like the one that Raptor3676 speculated about is not far off.

Also, I agree that Surface will not be in the home anytime soon but Windows 7 will bring multi-touch interaction to your home PC soon.

If you require to see my credentials before you take my opinion seriously, look under books on Expression Blend on Sliverlight.net located here: http://silverlight.net/Community/books.aspx

Nice to see you here Victor

Lloyd_Humph said:

victor gaudioso said:

*snip*

Nice to see you here Victor

LOL, Thanks my friend!  Love your avatar.  V

victor gaudioso said:

Lloyd_Humph said:

*snip*

LOL, Thanks my friend!  Love your avatar.  V

I like it too - I look nothing like it, though I do look okay in aviators...

Catch you later - got some news, be on GT after 1600GMT?

victor gaudioso said:

raptor3676 said:

*snip*

I work for IdentityMine and we develop Surface applications using WPF.  We have done some cool demos that were actually featured in Bill Gates Keynote at CES this year.  You can see those demos here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2iT-0z8Xxs

We also have started releasing videos on how to use our libraries to build Surface applications.  You can see how to use our libraries to build physics enabled WPF Surface applications here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_d2u5LhWfY (PS, that is me on the left side of the table).

We are currently working with clients to bring more, exciting Surface applications to market.  I think you would be surprised how many Fortune 500 companies are having Surface applications developed.  I cannot, of course tell you who our clients are and what we are doing for them but I can tell you this, a photo sharing application, much like the one that Raptor3676 speculated about is not far off.

Also, I agree that Surface will not be in the home anytime soon but Windows 7 will bring multi-touch interaction to your home PC soon.

If you require to see my credentials before you take my opinion seriously, look under books on Expression Blend on Sliverlight.net located here: http://silverlight.net/Community/books.aspx

Thanks for the replies Vincent, neat things you guys are doing.

I wonder if the Surface SDK will include some sort of Virtual Surface Kit you can use on your computer if you don't have access to one and still want to play around with VS2008/Blend.

I'd like to get into Expression Blend more, I just think hand-coding is easier, and  I do a lot of stuff in Illustrator and use Swansons Illustrator to Xaml export.

Harlequin said:

victor gaudioso said:

*snip*

Thanks for the replies Vincent, neat things you guys are doing.

I wonder if the Surface SDK will include some sort of Virtual Surface Kit you can use on your computer if you don't have access to one and still want to play around with VS2008/Blend.

I'd like to get into Expression Blend more, I just think hand-coding is easier, and  I do a lot of stuff in Illustrator and use Swansons Illustrator to Xaml export.

Hey Harlequin,
Yes the Surface SDK comes with a Surface Simulator.  We actually use that for development and then deploy the application to a Surface unit.

Blend is very good for what it is, a visual editor.  Because I am not a designer I spend most of my time in Visual Studio 2008 but there are times when it makes sense to do things visually in Blend.  For example, yesterday I was working on a pretty complex UserControl that had a lot of grids with different buttons that became visible at different times.  I decided that I went down the wrong rode and needed to totally restructure the control.  Instead of spending a ton of time doing it in code I switched over to Blend and restructured the control in a matter of minutes.  So, my take is, both are tools that are good for specific tasks.  Make sense?

BTW, I too, use Swanson's XAML exporter, it is very good.

I work for a branch of Avenue A | Razorfish ... I beleive one of the North American branches was responsible for the AT&T surface demo.

Surface is either WPF or XNA. I think only people with game development skills or are looking for high performance will be using XNA. Most other people will use WPF.

I use Expression Blend and Visual Studio. I use Blend when doing all the visuals, animations, etc.... and use VS for any coding and when I need to edit XAML by hand.

Schneider said:

I work for a branch of Avenue A | Razorfish ... I beleive one of the North American branches was responsible for the AT&T surface demo.

Surface is either WPF or XNA. I think only people with game development skills or are looking for high performance will be using XNA. Most other people will use WPF.

I use Expression Blend and Visual Studio. I use Blend when doing all the visuals, animations, etc.... and use VS for any coding and when I need to edit XAML by hand.

Hey Schneider, do you live in Los Angeles?