Ballot Box: MIX10 Open Call For Content

        The Microsoft Surface Computing platform is a compelling new technology that introduces new ways of interacting with software applications. Although the hardware platform is excellent, it’s the software running on it that makes the Surface computer come to life. This session will talk about exactly that: how to create ‘real-world’ multi touch applications for the Microsoft Surface platform.

In this session we will discuss ‘real world’ usage of Microsoft Surface, on the commercial, organizational and technical levels. We’ll investigate why our customers are interested in Surface computing and what is holding them back. Furthermore, we’ll have a look at what technical, physical and commercial burdens need to be surpassed to sell and create a successful Surface project. What problems we face when using Surface computers (e.g. in a television studio or in a public place) and what issues come up when designing and developing for the Surface platform. We will also focus on our experiences in trying to create user interfaces that require no prior knowledge and almost no learning curve from our users. 

We will focus on a number of projects, one of which combines Surface and (multi-touch) Silverlight/WPF technologies. Based on customer demand we created a set of applications that run on Microsoft Surface and on Silverlight/WPF. We will explain why and how we came to the proposed solution and how we could accommodate the customer’s wishes.

On the technical level we will have an in depth look at this application and the problems we faced during the creation thereof. How we designed the application taking into account that it must be available both on Surface and Silverlight without losing the specific features of both platforms.