Microsoft launches its new version of Microsoft Surface table and its tourism application “ISO Travel Solution”.

What is Microsoft Surface? A computer reacting to natural hand moves and touches so as to real objects which are placed on its surface. The "natural user interface" allows the selection of objects on a touch sensitive surface, moving them and changing their size. Multiple users can work simultaneously with information, content, and physical objects on the large horizontal 360degree user surface.

The 4 main attributes of the Microsoft Surface are:

• Handling of multiple users simultaneously
• Multitouch
• Direct interaction
• Object recognition

After a first launch in 2007 of the original version, Microsoft came back in January 2011 with a new version highly updated in terms of weight, size & cost but also on the technology and software used to power up the device.

First version of Microsoft Surface launched in 2007

New version launched in 2011

This new edition has been followed by the creation of multiple applications and especially the ISO Travel Solution in the tourism industry.

This application enables you to book hotels, flights, rental cars, cruises and packages. The choice starts with an interactive brochure or with the world map, and dive in!  You choose your preferred products with your finger and place them on the table. May you need further information about a service or a destination, an intuitive menu will guide you through the whole available content. Objects can be moved and placed in the shopping basket with a finger, and you can obviously process directly the booking and payment of all products.

The hotel group Sheraton Hotels & Resorts has already adopted the system in some strategic establishment in the USA adopting as such a totally new hotel guest experience.

Featuring easy-to-use technology and a natural way of accessing information, Surface units have been placed in the lobbies of selected Sheraton hotels in Boston, Chicago, New York, San Francisco and Seattle. Sheraton has been the first hotel to offer Microsoft Surface, creating a new Sheraton brand experience bringing interaction, connectivity and a social setting to the lobby, providing guests with an entirely new way to explore local tourist highlights and enhance their hotel stay through the three main options:

• CityTips®. At the guests’ fingertips are the Surface 360-degree satellite maps and tools to search for local restaurants and bars, entertainment, recreation, shopping, transportation and services, such as banks and pharmacies. Guests can discover all a city has to offer by simply moving their hands across Surface.

• Sounds of Sheraton. Microsoft Surface also serves as a lobby-based digital jukebox, enabling guests to create personal music playlists by choosing selections from Sheraton’s exclusive offering of Sony BMG artists, including John Legend, Kenny Chesney and Lauryn Hill.

• Sheraton Snapshots. Guests can explore Sheraton hotels and resorts throughout the world by simply browsing the Surface photo library of Sheraton resorts and hotel properties to help them plan for future business or leisure travel.

 

http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2008/aug08/08-13sheratonmssurfacepr.mspx

http://www.isogmbh.com/services/tourism-solutions/multitouch-technology/microsoft-surface/iso-with-touch.html

http://lostpr.es/2011/01/31/microsoft-surface-connect-2455544/