Microsoft PixelSense  Microsoft PixelSense (formerly called Microsoft Surface) was an interactive surface computing platform that allows one or more people to use and touch real-world objects, and share digital content at the same time. The PixelSense platform consists of software and hardware products that combine vision based multitouch PC hardware, 360-degree multiuser application design, and Windows software to create a natural user interface (NUI). Microsoft Surface 1.0, the first version of PixelSense, was announced on May 29, 2007, at the D5 Conference. It shipped to customers in 2008 as an end-to-end solution with Microsoft producing and selling the combined hardware/software platform. It is a 30-inch (76 cm) 4:3 rear projection display (1024×768) with integrated PC and five near-infrared (IR) cameras that can see fingers and objects placed on the display. The display is placed in a horizontal orientation, giving it a table-like appearance. The product and its applications are designed so that several people can approach the display from all sides to simultaneously share and interact with digital content. The cameras’ vision capabilities enable the product to see a near-IR image of what’s placed on the screen, captured at approximately 60 times per second. The Surface platform processing identifies three types of objects touching the screen: fingers, tags, and blobs. Raw vision data is also available and can be used in applications. The device is optimized to recognize 52 simultaneous multitouch points of contact. Microsoft Corporation produced the hardware and software for the Microsoft Surface 1.0 product. Sales of Microsoft Surface 1.0 were discontinued in 2011 in anticipation of the release of the Samsung SUR40 for Microsoft Surface and the Microsoft Surface 2.0 software platform. Microsoft and Samsung partnered to announce the current version of PixelSense, the Samsung SUR40 for Microsoft Surface (“SUR40”), at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in 2011. Samsung began shipping the new SUR40 hardware with the Microsoft Surface 2.0 software platform to customers in early 2012. The Samsung SUR40 is a 40-inch (102 cm) 16:9 LED backlit LCD (1920×1080) with integrated PC and PixelSense technology, which replaces the cameras in the previous product. PixelSense technology enables Samsung and Microsoft to reduce the thickness of the product from 22 in (56 cm) to 4 in (10 cm). The size reduction enables the product to be placed horizontally, and adds the capability to be mounted vertically while retaining the ability to recognize fingers, tags, blobs and utilize raw vision data.