Multi-touch quite similar to Microsoft Surface was presented by Jeff Han as early as February 2006 at the TED Talks (four hands on the Perceptive Pixel wall). But the story is older, we have to move at least 25 years back into time ...
Jeff Han: "We basically have to un-teach people what they have learned so far about computing, and convince them that they can use several fingers, that several people can work on the screen at once."
Read Bill Buxton's personal chronology of multi-touch! | Compare with Microsoft Surface! | Compare with the iPhone! | View the talk!
[Update January 9: Read FastCompany!]
[Update January 10: Read Between the Lines!]
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