By allowing its snooty customers to manipulate the snooty Microsoft Surface interface with their snooty fingers, BMW has officially become the first car maker to offer the touchscreen tech to a worldwide car-buying audience. Impressed? Me neither, but that's just because I'm a low-paid writer who's insanely jealous of anyone driving a car that's hotter than my 2006 Mercury Milan. So, basically everyone.

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Microsoft announced the SecondLight table a few days ago, offering plenty of explanations as to how this modified, quasi-X-ray Surface table works and how one might use it, but little in the way of visual aides. The dual-projection system, by which the table identifies where it is being touched and projects a second, alternative image didn't sound like the kind of thing that would look, well, seamless. As it turns out, it does. Say what you will about the SecondLight's incredibly complicated design, but you can't deny that, in motion, the hidden overlay concept is pretty impressive. [PCPro via Slashdot]

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When Microsoft announced its Surface multitouch computer, we knew it'd be a toy for well-funded, respectable news outlets long before Joe the Plumbers, since it was going to cost $US10,000. Turns out, it actually costs more like $US13,500. That's with a 10 percent discount! Microsoft is still expecting good ol' economies of scale to kick in to help fulfil its dream of fancy coffee tables in every home, but uh, you might want to hang on to that iPhone or something if you want the multitouch future anytime soon. [Cnet via ZD Net]

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Lit Studios and Interference inc, the same guys who made that ridiculous laser pointer wall a few weeks ago, are back with a touch-enabled interactive mirror. Using a combination of projection techniques, they were able to superimpose a clear, vivid, moving image on top of a regular reflection, creating the bathroom mirror HUD that humanity (read: the sci-fi community) has been yearning for since about 1950.

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As much fun as it is to tinker with Microsoft's multitouch Surface table, most of its applications have been decidedly gimmicky. By offering a lower price (sooner than MS), more compact design, and more complete suite of software, SmartTech wants to bring multitouch tables to the people who would probably most appreciate them — kids. From the video (and press release), it looks as if the SMART Table has a nearly identical — if not better — set of capabilities to the Surface: multitouch, gesture support, a 27in screen and a super-simple SDK. Details are slim at the moment, but the price is a comparatively low $US7000, so expect to see the SMART Table popping up in more affluent school districts as early as Spring 2009. [SMART via Crunchgear]

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Microsoft seems to be throwing every wild touchscreen idea it can into research right now, first prototyping their weird SideSight mobile phone motion detector earlier this week, and now revealing SecondLight, a "magic lens" compatriot to their Surface multitouch table. SecondLight allows users to slide a type of transparent screen on top of the regular Surface display, and see extra info displayed on the screen. For instance, using SecondLife over an image of a car turns it into x-ray specs that show model's wireframe underbelly.

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Microsoft is at least considering releasing a consumer-priced version of its Surface computer, if a marketing research survey is to believed. The survey is centered around a device called "Oahu," which, from its description, sounds a lot like the table we've all come to know and love: a multitouch flat screen that sits like a table top and allows for multiple users to interact with it at once.

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Do you want to develop niche multitouch applications for a platform that most people will never get their hands on for the foreseeable future? You're in luck. Later this month, Microsoft will be releasing its Surface SDK beyond the few companies that have been privy to it since launch to attendees of its Professional Developer Conference. I am curious to see what kind of multitouch gaming could come out of more developers having access to the kit, but the fact that you can't just go out and buy one for your living room undoubtedly puts a damper on development fever for the platform. [Cnet]

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Pioneer showed off their new Floating Vision technology at CEATEC this year. It's a system of layers: first, an LCD with built-in computer, then an array of 3D lenses, and finally the "space sensor," or virtual screen, where you can wave your fingers around and watch the 3D animations react accordingly. But the space sensor can also distinguish between and interact with different objects, like the Microsoft Surface: hold your phone under a falling object, say, and it'll appear on your phone's screen with a coupon for that item. Second video after the jump.

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It's tough to imagine the eureka moment when an engineer, equating the Microsoft Surface with a fat person with a penchant for curly fries dipped in ranch, decided to place the Surface on the Wii Balance Board. But the result, coupled with a custom-coded Surface app, creates a tilt screen of epic proportions. Pushing on one edge of the Surface works just like rotating an iPhone. And we can't wait to see the technology manifest to an insane 4-player co-op game of Monkey Ball. [Stimulant via ubergizmo]

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