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One of the features that was initially shown off about Windows 7 was the touch capability; that talk seems to have died down lately, amongst the beta and RC releases, but an announcement today has brought it back into the limelight. A post over at the Windows Team blog has just revealed the Microsoft Touch Pack for Windows 7. This pack brings a range of touch-friendly applications, of which we will detail below.
Microsoft Surface Globe:
The first of these applications is called Microsoft Surface Globe. This, as you can imagine, is a multi-touch capable globe (think Google Earth) that uses the Virtual Earth 3D engine to display a rotatable 3D version of the world. You can visit various locations and regions, get information about some areas, and bookmark your favorites. To add to this, some cities are even constructed in 3D, providing a very realistic and detailed experience. If you want to watch a quick video of this in action, please head to this link. Also, there’s a screenshot of this below.
Microsoft Surface Collage:
Next up, we have the Microsoft Surface Collage. This tool allows you to choose a gallery of photos, and then move them around and scale them however you please. If you’ve watched a video of Microsoft Surface before, you’ll have an idea of how this works. Once you’ve got an arrangement that you like, you can choose to save it as an image then use it as a desktop wallpaper. Again, a screenshot is included.
Microsoft Surface Lagoon:
Microsoft Surface Lagoon is a very interesting looking application. It is, essentially, a screensaver for your computer that you can interact with using your hands via multi-touch technology. It depicts an underwater scene with sand, water (of course), and fish. By interacting with it, you can have fish gather around you and also run your fingers through the virtual water.
Microsoft Blackboard:
Microsoft Blackboard is another rather intriguing piece of software. It is a puzzle game, that uses simulated physics combined with multi-touch to get the user to solve it. You use gestures to create seesaws, fans and gears that can all be resized and moved around. Everything is pieced together on a virtual blackboard (hence the name), and the goal is to get balloons and balls to a lightbulb.
Microsoft Rebound:
Microsoft Rebound is a game that is played against friends or AI, which appears to be somewhat similar to Air Hockey. The aim is to «use your fingers to propel a ball and annihilate your opponent» whilst playing in an electrified court.
Microsoft Garden Pond:
Microsoft Garden Pond is another game, though this one has a more relaxing tone to it. The idea is to guide some origami creations to peaceful areas of a pond, or direct them around using your hands to complete set goals. To move the origami, you interact with the water, making ripples.
Obviously, in order to use these applications, you will need a Windows 7 PC that supports multi-touch. This pack will be available to PC suppliers, who will choose themselves which applications to install (or not install), so that means that these will become available when Windows 7 itself is released. After Windows 7 is widely available, Microsoft state that they, «will look at making the Microsoft Touch Pack for Windows 7 even more broadly available based on feedback from customers and partners.»
GottaBeMobile have a full video demonstration, embedded below.
At Wall Street Journal’s D: All Things Digital conference about a year ago today, Julie Larson-Green first introduced Walt Mossberg to Windows 7 and its multi-touch capabilities, which we call Windows Touch. While we’ve been working on bringing natural user interface to you in many Microsoft products, we first introduced multi-touch in Microsoft Surface. Since then, the Windows and Surface development teams have been collaborating closely on bringing multi-touch to Windows, and last year demoed a few applications they created to run on Windows 7. Today, we thought it would be fitting on this “anniversary” of first talking about Windows Touch to introduce the Microsoft Touch Pack for Windows 7.
While touch is built into the “DNA” of Windows 7, something that was talked about in the Touching Windows 7 blog post on the E7 Blog, we thought it would be fun to give you some applications that show what’s possible with this new way to interact with your PC. The Microsoft Touch Pack for Windows 7 is a set of six multi-touch optimized applications and games that are designed to truly showcase the capabilities of Windows Touch in Windows 7. It consists of 3 casual games, and 3 Microsoft Surface applications that have been created for Windows 7.
Let’s take a closer look at what’s in the Microsoft Touch Pack for Windows 7…
Microsoft Surface Globe pretty much puts the whole world in your hands (well, kind of!). It uses the Virtual Earth 3D engine to display a 3D version of the world. Using multi-touch, you can navigate to different regions, get local information, and “pin” your favorite locations. You can even “fly” around 3D models of buildings in some cities. The Microsoft Surface Globe was one of the apps Julie Larson-Green demoed at last year’s D: All Things Digital conference. To see the Microsoft Surface Globe app in action – take a look at this video.
Take your favorite digital photos and arrange and resize them using only your fingertips with Microsoft Surface Collage! Once you have your photos in an arrangement you like, it’s simple to save your collage and make it your desktop background. I’ve made a whole series of backgrounds and cycle through them with the desktop slideshow.
Microsoft Surface Lagoon is a screensaver that you can interact with using multi-touch. It recreates the natural environment of water and schooling fish. It is really relaxing to run your fingers through the “water” and hold your finger down and watch the fish gather around.
Solve a puzzle game of physics, called Microsoft Blackboard, by creating a nifty machine on a virtual blackboard. Use gestures to rotate and resize gears, fans, seesaws and more to move balloons and balls toward the light bulbs – and victory.
Use your fingers to propel a ball and annihilate your opponent in Microsoft Rebound. Play against the computer or challenge a friend and battle it out in the electrified court to see who the champion is.
Finally, with Microsoft Garden Pond, you can guide your origami creations to peaceful areas on the pond or direct them with gestures to complete goals that have been set for you. Gently move the origami by making ripples in the water.
In order to use the Microsoft Touch Pack for Windows 7 – you’ll need a Windows 7 PC that supports multi-touch. The Microsoft Touch Pack for Windows 7 will be available to PC makers (OEMs) who will have the option to pre-install some, none, or all of the applications available in the Microsoft Touch Pack for Windows 7 on PCs designed for Windows Touch (PCs that meet the logo requirements for Windows Touch) – so you should start to see these applications showing up on some touch PCs around the time Windows 7 is made broadly available. After general availability of Windows 7, we will look at making the Microsoft Touch Pack for Windows 7 even more broadly available based on feedback from customers and partners.
The Microsoft Touch Pack for Windows 7 is a great example of immersive experiences software developers can create for Windows 7 and multi-touch. We thought now would be a good time to share what some of the team has been working on – and give you folks a glimpse into what’s possible – and we look forward to continuing this conversation as the touch community grows.
PLEASE NOTE: The Microsoft Touch Pack for Windows 7 will be available to PC makers (OEMs) that have a direct contractual relationship with Microsoft.
The Touch Pack includes:
Microsoft Blackboard, an intricate game of physics in which you solve a puzzle by creating a fanciful machine on a blackboard.
Microsoft Garden Pond, a tranquil game that takes place in serene Japanese water gardens.
Microsoft Rebound, a game in which you use your fingertips to control Tesla spheres with an electrical field between them to catapult a metal game ball into your opponent’s goal.
Microsoft Surface Globe, a program that you can use to explore the earth as a flat 2-D map or as an immersive 3-D experience.
Microsoft Surface Collage, a program that you can use to explore and interact with your photos and arrange them as a desktop background.
Microsoft Surface Lagoon, a screen saver and interactive water simulation, complete with a meditative rock arrangement and playful, shy fish.
Microsoft Touch Pack для Windows 7
Пакет Microsoft Touch Pack для Windows 7 — это свободно распространяемый набор игр и программ, управление которыми осуществляется с помощью пальцев. Чтобы использовать эти игры и программы, потребуется ноутбук с экраном, поддерживающим мультисенсорные возможности, или настольный ПК и сенсорный экран с поддержкой подобной технологии (в том числе моноблоки с сенсорными экранами).
Чтобы предоставлять эти возможности, ноутбук, моноблок или сенсорный экран должны содержать эмблему Windows 7 с информацией о поддержке ими технологии Windows Touch.
Пакет Touch Pack предварительно устанавливается на многих моделях мультисенсорных ПК под управлением операционной системы Windows 7.
[cut=Состав пакета]
чтобы обеспечить попадание металлического игрового шара в лунку соперника.
с медитативным музыкальным сопровождением и стайками игривых рыбок. Прикоснитесь пальцами к экрану, чтобы создать волнение морской глади и привлечь внимание рыбок.
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О технологии Windows Touch (eng.)
О технологии Windows Touch (рус.)
Зеркало
In this video InkShow, I take a quick look at the multi-touch applications that will be a part of the Microsoft Touch Pack for Windows 7: Surface Collage, Rebound, Blackboard, Garden Pond, Surface Globe, and the Surface Lagoon screen saver. Microsoft Surface technology can be felt all over this pack, from the screensaver to the globe. Playing with the Touch Pack on my Dell Latitude XT felt like I was playing on a minature Surface computer – the experience was that good. Keep reading for more and to watch the video.
These applications are a lot of fun, once you figure out how to play them. They make multi-touch on a Windows 7 touch computer come alive. I did this quick demo on my Dell Latitude XT running build 7100 and the latest multi-touch drivers from N-Trig. Except for a lack of help files to give me some pointers, and my having difficulty figuring a few of the games out, I’ve had a lot of fun playing with these applications over the past several weeks. All the pieces for a good consumer experience around multi-touch finally appear to be coming together. The applications will be quite the hit and I’m sure they will help create some excitement amongst consumers. Having something to do with that new multi-touch computer right off the bat is going to be very important. Let’s hope Microsoft rolls out some more prototype games, and the development community gets going on some entertaining applications of their own.
The pack will be pre-installed by OEMs on computers that support multi-touch and meet Microsoft’s Logo requirements for Touch and Windows 7. Additional information on the upcoming Touch Pack can be found here on Microsoft’s Windows 7 Team blog, along with a detailed description of each game.
Ok, gotta run…Blackboard and Garden Pond are calling my name – gotta figure those suckers out. I think my son and I will go at it tonight with a game of Rebound. Hey Microsoft – I’d love to see an internet-enabled version of Rebound! Checkout the video below.
All GottaBeMobile.com InkShows are sponsored by TechSmith.com
All GottaBeMobile.com InkShows are sponsored by TechSmith.com