Scratching the Surface

Marketers looking for new ways to engage and delight customers have another tech gadget to add to their arsenal: the Microsoft Surface. Not your ordinary touchscreen computer, the Microsoft Surface is a 30-inch tabletop display that users control not with a keyboard and mouse, but with touch, natural gestures and even by placing domino-tagged objects onto the screen. It's designed to allow users to do anything they would do with a standard computer or informational kiosk, but with more freedom and better usability.

Unlike the touchscreen technology that's been on the market for years, the Surface can recognize dozens of touches at once, allowing several people to use it at the same time for the ultimate in face-to-face, collaborative computing. Surface also can recognize domino-tagged physical objects – such as cameras and phones, even paintbrushes – placed on the display. Each object triggers a different response. For example, the camera might allow photo downloads, the phone might allow music or address book transfers, and the paintbrush might act as a unique input device that lets users "paint" on the screen.

First unveiled in May 2007, the Microsoft Surface is already being used by companies in the retail, hospitality, automotive, banking and health care industries. Most notably, AT&T, Harrah's Rio Hotel & Casino and Sheraton Hotels & Resorts are leading the charge in bringing the technology to the masses.

The first company to use Microsoft Surface in a retail environment, AT&T launched the device in April 2008 in some of its largest retail locations, including stores in New York City, Atlanta, San Antonio and San Francisco. The Surface helps customers make decisions about which phone to purchase by recognizing certain models placed on the display and generating menus about the features for those particular phones. Customers also have the option to place two phones on the display and review a comparison chart of the different features of each.

Las Vegas' Rio Hotel & Casino launched six Microsoft Surface displays at the iBar in June 2008. Lounge lizards are using the displays to order drinks, explore Vegas attractions, play games ... and even flirt with other barflies across the room by sending them messages or photos taken with cameras controlled by the Surface units. Another hotel brand, Sheraton Hotels & Resorts, launched Surface in late 2008 in select Boston, Chicago, New York, San Francisco and Seattle locations. Set up in Sheraton lobbies, the Microsoft Surface allows guests to explore the ins and outs of the city they're visiting, make music playlists and tour Sheraton locations around the world.

The Microsoft Surface has Pittsburgh ties, too. Brady Communications has partnered with Allin Corporation to develop custom Microsoft Surface interfaces and applications for cruise lines. Allin wanted to develop a tool that would provide cruise guests with an easier way to get information shore excursions and on-board entertainment. The idea is that cruise lines will install several Surface displays in various public areas on their ships.

While still a work in progress, so far, Brady Communications has designed an application that displays postcards for each port destination; by centering the design on postcards, a familiar object, cruise guests more easily adapt to the new technology, interacting with the Surface postcards the same way they would a "real" postcard. The front of each postcard features a tantalizing photo of the destination, while the back of the postcard provides detailed information about what to expect there. The Surface displays also connect to the Allin network already in place on several major cruise lines, so customers can interact with a Surface system while they're above deck and return to that query later on via Allin's in-cabin ITV systems.

By providing an easier way to find useful information about on-board entertainment and shore excursions – and with the ability to make instant purchases – Allin's Microsoft Surface applications will allow the cruise line industry to captivate their guests in ever more exciting ways.