DigiDesk Touch-Desk Microsoft's Sci-Fi Desk of the Future
DigiDesk is yet another technology company's version of the future; in this case, Microsoft's. As a rule, I like my future in text format (i.e., stories), but I'll take this one. Take a few minutes to look at a prototype, from Microsoft's Center for Information at Convergence 2007 conference.
In this view, you see a factory floor schematic; the display shows relevant information about work flow throughout the factory. The controller can pull up specific information about each area on the display.
However, there is a much older example from the classic 1927 silent film Metropolis, by Fritz Lang. In the film, vast factories and production facilities are controlled from a single "desk."
(Metropolis control "desk")
Using this device, the controller could bring up any factory floor or area, and place a call to the foreman. Various parameters about that area were also presented.
(Metropolis control center detail)
I can't believe that Microsoft passed up the chance to have the DigiDesk overseer call up flunkies and give them peremptory orders.
Take a look at the Microsoft DigiDesk prototype in action in the YouTube video below.
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