Toine de Boer

The purpose of the application is to be able to discuss drawings, making notes on drawings and store them for later use. The application is a collaboration tool as a meeting table. An example could be that engineers use this table to discuss technical drawings and make notes on them for later use.

The application has been made in 2009 and is one of the first applications made for the MS Surface. The app has a great 360 UI and is really Multi User. Users can work on different drawings simultaneously or make notes on the same drawing in the same time.

Some Features:

• Draw different collared lines with different sizes
• Erase lines or clear the whole document at once
• Add or remove text notes
• Undo or redo any action
• Save or clear notes
• Export drawings with notes and watermark to USB or Mail
• Import drawings from USB or Network folder
• Minimize or maximize drawings
• Turn all drawings at once
• Minimize all drawings at once
• Two separate controllable file explorers
• Support PDF, PNG JPG, TIFF  (upcoming: AutoCAD and Micro station)
• Etc….

I have written a MS Surface development article for a dutch Microsoft software development magazine, the .Net Magazine. This article will give a quick start in MS Surface development; it tells the basic ‘need to know’ things to start developing, followed by simple and advanced code samples with detailed comments.

The article ends with the pitfalls in MS Surface development, especially when coming from normal desktop development.

PS: the article is written in dutch

Het Ontwikkelen van MS Surface-applicaties (pdf)
Het Ontwikkelen van MS Surface-applicaties (.Net magazine)

During the MS Surface application development of the last two years I created a little extension on some MS Surface controls. Most of the added functionalities are animations for existing controls. I also added a Pen detection system that can distinct infra-red Pens and Touches, without any tricks.

The video shows a view of the many possibilities in our custom created Surface Library.

Properties
• Can Remove by Throwing
• Can Remove by Pinching
• Can Push other items
• Can Detect Pen
• Add Items by Queue

Open Animation
• None
• Popup
• Out of Screen

This demo shows a little how a user interface, like the MS Surface, can be used to get control over situations where lots of parties are involved. This demo application is surely not the best Tabletop 360UI application, the fullscreen globe isn’t a 360UI control at all.

Nevertheless is this application a good example what the advantage is of retrieving different crucial information on a single interface, to get all needed information from all available sources of an event and handle from there on.