Microsoft Surface gestures coming to Windows Mobile

We don’t write too much about Microsoft Surface, a seemingly niche prestige product from Microsoft that appears never to be aimed at the consumer.

It seems however some of the technology developed will soon trickle down to us mere mortals who are not inclined to pay $10,000 for a trumped up coffee table.

Microsoft has with their Surface SP1 aimed to bring more of the technology surrounding the project to their other OS’s, primarily Windows 7 by incorporating it into the .Net 4 Framework, but also eventually to Windows Mobile, when the devices support capacitive multi-touch screens.

Says the project’s general manager Brad Carpenter:

"There’s lots of interest around multi-touch and NUI [Natural User interface] inside Microsoft and that’s great, but making sure we have consistency is important. We are at the stage where we are internally driving to an agreement about what is the right set of gestures, but we have to think about this across devices."

While much of the gestures will have to wait for the technology to support it, some of it, such as single finger gestures can be implemented immediately.

"… a flick needs to be a flick needs to be a flick; the gesture – and the underlying response – should be the same. On one device it shouldn’t take forever to get across the screen."

Hopefully the next few years will see an integration of the various strands of Microsoft’s business to create a pleasurable and consistent experience across the whole computing environment.

Until then, read more about the latest developments in Surface here.