Microsoft Surface was announced a few weeks ago by Microsoft was a new means of interacting with a computer. It gives a new meaning to the
word "desktop". Microsoft Surface is basically a table that can detect anything on its surface and react to it by the hardware that tells the software what is going on.
The surface is reported to run Windows Vista, the Microsoft operating system that was released in November 2006 and put onto shelves January 2007. The graphics run on a graphic subsystem called Windows Presentation Foundation ("WPF"). So all the interesting graphics and effects run on that platform.
Surface version 1 will be costly and will not show up in your home quite yet. At $10,000 per unit, the Microsoft Surface will be released in December and will most likely show up ONLY in hotels, high-end restaurants, and casinos. Microsoft Surface is the future. The technology WILL come down in price.
If you have seen the movie The Island, you might remember the director of the oasis, Dr. Merrick, using an interesting computer on his desk. It turns out that this was an early version of the Microsoft Surface. The 2005 movie featured the earliest of prototypes.
Photos credited to Long Zheng.