Microsoft Researcher: Microsoft Surface Will Be in Cost Effective, in Homes in Three Years

Just three more year until we can all play Dungeons and Dragons and Warhammer on Microsoft's Surface table top.

Microsoft's Surface has been teasing us for way too long. Every time we see the massive, touchscreen tabletop used in an innovative way, we want to know when we can expect the technology to hit the mainstream so we can have one for ourselves. According to Microsoft researcher Bill Buxton, we have three more years to wait.

In an interview with Canada's Globe and Mail, Buxton was asked about the 'next big thing' with regards to technology that's already available but not being exploited for the mainstream market. Buxton highlights the Surface, which he has been working on since 1992, and explains that even if the device were affordable for the every day tech fiend (it's really, really not in case you're wondering), the equipment needed for the Surface means it's just not suitable. Buxton goes on to say that the company is working on making the Surface more suitable for home use in terms of equipment.

"Right now it has five cameras in it and a projector and a bunch of other stuff. It’s just a lot. What will happen is that Surface will become no thicker than a sheet of glass," he told the Globe and Mail. "That will more or less be true. It’s not going to have any cameras or projectors because the cameras will be embedded in the device itself."

"The best way to think about it is like a big LCD where there’s a fourth pixel in every triad," he explains. "So there’s red, green, and blue pixels giving you light, and a fourth pixel which is a sensor that will capture stuff; go the other direction."

Buxton says he believes that they'll see this technology in living rooms in about three years with "really cost effective prices" to boot.

Check out the full interview here.

_{Source: Globe and Mail via Engadget}