The Walt Disney Co. has invested heavily in an amusement park cum 3-D gaming experience where the user can go on shooting spree like a video game in a real life amusement park. Opened last Tuesday the Californian Adventure based next to the Disney Land in Anaheim California is an amusement park where riders get a 3- D glass, ride the vehicle and travel though the carnival hosted by character from the Toy Story film. Each rider has his won weapon and can go on rapid fire fashion along giants screen displaying classic board games.

Toy story Midway Manis is the first phase of billion dollar investment by Disney land to bring in chain of amusement park along the Disney Land which will be coupled with 3-D gaming experience and ultra modern technologies.

Today’s house of the future

Disneyland has opened up the Innovations Dream home in the Tomorrowland Area. It is a mixed blend of technology, fantasy and, marketing by Disney and its partner Microsoft, HP and home automater Life/Ware and Taylor Morrison.

Built with an investment of $15 million in 5000 square foot housed, this is the latest avatar of Disney Staple of 1950s and 1960s. The house features innovative technologies which are not found in market for sale. The giant Microwave oven and television that hung on the one wall showcases how will be the future of our home and devices used in it.

Disney’s new house also showcases future technologies that are being built by Microsoft like Surface table computer and touch screen PCs. Each company paid Disney heavily to participate in the Disney’s Future Home for next five years.

According to Jonathan Cluts, director of strategic prototyping for Microsoft, The future home of Disneyland is not that future anymore. Anyone can go and purchase 80% of its item in the market and remaining are on their way to development. so, within next 4-5 years most items displayed in the Tomorrowland will be available for sale in the market and anyone with money in hand can invest in these items and built their own future Home.

Visitors in Disneyland can now play long with Elias family actors alongside mingling with Microsoft’s Surface computers and can even experience touch screen HP computers while working in its kitchen and home office. These all products have a sense of innovative technology and with aggressive production from their manufactures you can see them within your home in next few years.

And all this has been possible because of Harrah’s Entertainment Inc, which commissioned six Microsoft Surface computers tailor-made for a bar at its Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino. A Harrah’s spokesperson confirmed that it has customized the software to be installed in the casino bar and fitted it with cameras to give real life experience to the guests who could order drinks, create cocktail recipes with their choicest liquor and even know interesting facts about the origin of the wine. One of the other interesting aspects of Surface computers is that you can even take a virtual tour of the vineyard sitting in the iBar.

The application of Microsoft Surface was widely anticipated in the entertainment zone, as reports of its interesting hotels and restaurant usability made rounds since the inception of this tabletop computer. It was perhaps this excitement, which led partygoers throng the Sin City Rio All-Suite casino bar in unexpectedly large numbers on the debut night.

Harrah’s Entertainment cites this as an encouraging trend where entertainment and technology makes for a spirited cocktail. In fact, this can be considered as Harrah’s, one of the strategic decisions to introduce Microsoft surface in the casino bar, which turns tabletops into touch-controlled computer displays; soon after telecom giant AT&T
registered success with it in retail stores.

The customized tabletop computer confirms Harrah’s also comes integrated with a ‘Flirt’ feature. This not only lets people switch over original messages or choose from suggested come-on lines, but also opens up endless possibilities to entertainment and life.

A promotional feature for Microsoft Surface’s debut in the swanky casino bar invites people to take a virtual stroll along the renowned Las Vegas strip sitting in the comforts of the iBar, besides spending time playing games over the computers or watch online videos.

This is in fact a successful convergence of technology and entertainment. As Tim Stanley, Vice President (Innovation, Gaming and Technology), Harrah’s Entertainment Inc. puts it ‘this breakthrough concept is aimed at giving a new genre of guests chances to discover unrestrained excitement’. However, not to forget, Microsoft’s first $10,000 deal of the Surface technology product in the entertainment sector.

AT&Thas stores all around the United States and on April 17th they will be conducting an experiment by placing twenty-two different Surface Computers in four of their stores in the country. These Surface Computers will operate as they were always envisioned to do. When people place products on the Surface, information regarding the product will come on the screen. The customer can then directly interact with the Surface in order to change the information that is being shown or to bring up additional information regarding the product on the screen. The customer can even put two products on screen at the same time in order to do an on the spot comparison between the two products before choosing which one they want to purchase.

All of these nifty things will make decisions easier for the customer from a shopping around point of view, although it might also make the lives of AT&Tsales agents a bit harder over the first week as people are expected to come into the store in order to get a chance to play with AT&T’s new Surface Computers.

AT&TStore Locations (Links lead to Maps.Live.com):

· New York: 381 Madison Ave. or 350 Park Ave.

· San Francisco area: 1206 El Camino Real, San Bruno

· San Antonio: 13127 San Pedro Ave.

· Atlanta: 3429 Lenox Road N.E.

Source: SarcasticGamer

Event Details:

Sheraton San Diego Hotel & Marina
1380 Harbor Island Drive · San Diego, California 92101, Phone: (619) 291-2900
Wednesday, February 20
Afternoon to 5 PM
Cost: Free and open to the public

There is a widespread excitement about the Microsoft Surface’s utility and the way it transforms imagination into reality. You must have dreamt of touching the surface of the deep blue sea as you see it on your computer or television screen. But Microsoft Surface have made that possible. You can actually make movements with your hands and swirl the water on the screen.


One of the many likely place where Microsoft Surface is expected to make its mark are the hotels and restaurants. As places which need constant innovation in décor, food, menu and presentation; Microsoft Surface in hotels and restaurantsis the perfect addition to attract more visitors and also ensure a more user friendly ambience.

Microsoft is quite enthusiastic about the introduction of Surface in restaurants and lounges. Harrah’s casinos and Sheraton hotels are amongst the first few in hotel business who are going to introduce Surface. Though critics refer to this as an expensive bet, with each unit of MS Surface costing $5,000 to $10,000 approximately, hotel and restaurant owners are quite positive that the Microsoft Surface application will be worth investing and will surely enhance their business.

So, what will be the Microsoft Surface in hotel experience be like? It is said that the whole application will be set on a touch table. As you run your fingers on the table, you can have your choice of mood lighting to the menu to order your favorite food and drinks. Experts believe that the Surface application can do away with the requirement of waiters in a restaurants; because, computers can be more approachable and convenient.

So when the next time you go to a Microsoft Surface enabled restaurant, do not forget to check out the bar. The touch table on the bar is set to offer you a menu card with several options for wine and drinks. Besides, introducing to the origin of the wine you order, you might also have the option to book a tour to see the vineyards. Interestingly, Microsoft Surface has also ensure that you are notified when your glass needs a refill. Now thats innovation for you!

From T3:

T3 was treated to a visit by the much anticipated Surface computer this week. Shipped all the way from the States, it’s the first taste of the touch-sensitive tabletop in the UK.

Not only were we blown away, but Microsoft says the product’s well on its way to the real world, and that we’ll be stroking them in public before next year.

That is, if you’re in the US. Several firms have signed up to use Surface in their stores, hotels and casinos. There are even plans to let the technology take orders in restaurants and bars, as well as entertaining guests in hotel rooms.

It’s a tempting taste of the future, and we couldn’t stop tapping, stroking and gesturing at the model we got our hands on.

Take a look at our exclusive video below, and see why the next computer you use might be the most intuitive yet.

The Surface system, also known by the Milan code name, uses a 30-inch screen, several cameras, a PC running the Vista operating system and a projector to create an interactive, touch-sensitive environment that reacts to objects coming into contact with its flat surface.

This application shows an image of the bed of a stream. When you place a finger on the screen, it reacts as if you have disturbed the water above the pebbles. The Surface device currently costs between $5,000 and $10,000, but Microsoft hopes it will be in homes in around three to five years.

Here the humble paint application is shown–with a real paint brush being used to draw a face on the Surface table. Mark Bolger, director of marketing for Microsoft Surface Computing, said: “We’re redefining the way people interact with digital content. What we want to do is make technology more accessible.”

These are domino tags. They can be placed on top of the Surface device, which then recognizes commands from the pattern of eight dots. The tags can be used on a variety of objects, and different commands can be programmed into the Surface system. Microsoft is developing domino tags with 90 dots to increase the number of options.

The domino tags have been placed on the face drawn in the paint program, prompting the computer to display these strange patterns around the tabs to create the eyes. Surface is also compatible with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, so it will be able to react in a similar way to mobile phone commands and RFID chips.

This demo shows how Surface could be used in a restaurant or bar environment. The glass has a domino tag on the bottom that sends information about the drink and potentially how and where it’s made. It could even be used to order another drink.

Microsoft plans to launch this Surface concierge application in the U.S. at the end of this year or in early 2008 with Starwood Hotels and Resorts and with Harrah’s Entertainment, which owns the Caesars Palace casino in Las Vegas.

The same application can be used to pay for food or drink at the end of the night. Here a credit card (left) with a domino tag fitted is being used to pay the bill, which is stored on the card on the right. To pay, the customer simply drags the bill onto the credit card.

This picture shows an application developed for T-Mobile. The company plans to use Surface in some of its U.S. stores toward the end of the year. A mobile phone with a domino tag (left) is placed on the Surface top and the relevant information for the handset is brought up. The customer can then select from the different talk plans at the bottom and drag them onto the phone to get an idea of pricing and so on. Here, the user is selecting ringtones and dragging them to the phone.

This is a puzzle application in which each domino-tagged tile has a different part of a video image showing scenes from London. The tiles can be arranged to create the complete picture. Microsoft is aiming to provide similar applications for use in people’s homes and also is working with IGT, which makes computer arcade games.

Credit: Tim Ferguson/Silicon.com

    Guests And The Public To Experience Hands-On Interaction With Digital
    Content Through Product's Unique Capabilities

    Renowned Artist, Charles Pachter to Demonstrate Surface's Interactive
    Painting Feature with Creation of Original Artwork

    TORONTO, Sept. 14 /CNW/ - The Sheraton Centre Toronto Hotel will host
live demonstrations of Microsoft Surface, a revolutionary new surface
computing product that was recently unveiled to major fanfare. For one day
only, Saturday, September 15, from 11AM to 4PM, guests and the public can
experience Microsoft Surface - a 30-inch display in a table-like form factor
that recognizes natural gestures, touch and physical objects, enabling
hands-on, interaction with digital content such as photos, music and maps.
    Microsoft Surface will roll out in Sheraton Hotels within the U.S. and
Canada starting late spring 2008, and will offer Sheraton guests an array of
capabilities to enhance their stay, which could include browsing and listening
to music, creating playlists, sending photos home, downloading books and even
ordering food and drinks.



    <<
               GREAT PHOTO OPPORTUNITIES OF MICROSOFT SURFACE
               ----------------------------------------------
        INTERVIEW OPPORTUNITIES/REACTION WITH GUESTS AND THE PUBLIC
        -----------------------------------------------------------

    WHAT:     Sheraton Hosts Public Look at Microsoft Surface

    WHEN:     Saturday, September 15th from 11AM to 4PM

    WHERE:    Sheraton Centre Toronto Hotel, 123 Queen Street West

              For more information on Microsoft Surface, visit
              www.surface.com
    >>

For further information: Cynthia Bond, Dan Young, Starwood Canada, (416)
947-4827, (416) 947-4955 ext.4458, cynthia.bond@starwoodhotels.com,
dan.young@starwoodhotels.com