Microsoft Surface University of Washington Computer Science & Engineering
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General
 Getting Started
 Development
 Test your app
 Share your app
Useful Resources
 x64 and VS2010
 Microsoft Surface
 Surface Community
Related
 SMART Board
   
UW Student Technology Fee
Brought to you by
UW CSE and the UW Student Technology Fee.

New Styles of Computing and Collaboration

Two Microsoft Surface computers are available in the Allen Center, for CSE and UW students to explore alternative models of computing devices, and to explore and develop new collaboration environments. The Surface is essentially a "digital coffee table" - an embedded computer taking the form and function of a familiar "gathering spot", so that several people can cluster around a familiar object and interact with the object and with each other in natural ways. The Surface has a horizontal screen that incorporates a multi-touch interface to manipulate multi-media content, along with embedded sensors (five infrared cameras) to interact with people, and embedded interfaces (Bluetooth, barcode reader) to interact with other devices such as cameras, phones, laptops and special bar-coded objects.

One Surface is located in the Atrium and is available to all UW students; a sceond unit is located in the third-floor breakout space (development login of the third-floor unit is limited to CSE students). Both are "Developer" models, so you can both use the Surface, and develop your own applications for this alternative digital device.

Another type of collaboration device available for use and experimentation by all UW students is a digital whiteboard. A SMART Board—also provided by UW CSE and the UW Tech Fee—is available for check-out by any UW student, for use in the Allen Center break-out spaces. Perhaps you can think of some great way to combine these two devices!

Getting Started with the Surface

The Surface can be used in "presentation" mode simply by tapping on the screen to activate the touch-sensitive home screen and the installed apps. Access to the underlying operating system is available through the XXX button, which allows you to log in with your UW NetID, using a virtual keyboard or an attached physical keyboard. We have Version 1.0 of the Surface.

Development

To develop your own applications for the Surface, you will use a separate machine, and a special Surface SDK which includes a visual Surface simulator.

Development Software Tools

You will use a separate computer with a special software kit installed, which is based on Visual Studio (C#), and includes a Surface simulator for testing and debugging. Once you have debugged your application, you will log into the Surface itself to load and run your application. You can use the development kit on any operating system, since it is a virtual machine (VM) that has been pre-configured with all the necessary packages.

Download the UW Surface VM
Installation instructions (includes VM player download)

Test your application on the Surface

To test your application on the Surface, bring a flash drive containing your application, or store it in a network directory. You can then use the attached keyboard to log on to the Surface using your UW NetID (it runs Vista). Mount your network drive if that is where you stored your application, or plug in your flash drive to the USB port. You can copy your app to C:\HomeBrew (create a new folder for yourself under that directory, but be aware it goes away upon logout!) In your new folder create an XML file for your application, using sample.xml as a template. Copy your XML file to the folder, to replace the file named "Copy XML file here". Double-click the icon on the desktop for "Surface input" and then "Surface shell". Your program should now be on the Surface menu!

Share your app

If you would like to share your app with others, you can ask to have it installed in the Surface image. Include a description of your app and a network path to it, and we will evaluate it and consider it for installation in the Surface main menu.

Alternative Development Scenarios

If the Surface VM is not suitable for your purposes, you can install and run the development kit directly on your own Windows machine, or try some experimental environments.

Natively on your computer

To run the development kit natively on your own laptop or desktop machine, you will need three things: Microsoft Visual Studio C# 2008 (XXX Edition or Express Edition), and the Surface SDK, which requires XNA 2.0. Note that the Surface SDK is only compatible with Visual Studio 2008. If you have a newer version of VS, you will want to use the UW Surface VM, described above.

Visual C# 2008 Express (Select the 2008 Express tab, the Surface SDK is not compatible with newer versions)
XNA Game Studio
Surface SDK

NOTE: Currently, x64 operating systems are not supported with the Surface SDK. If you have a x64 bit workstation, you can try one of the experimental methods described directly below, or you will want to use the UW Surface VM, described above.

x64 and VS2010

While it is not supported (meaning you can't ask anyone for help about it, Microsoft or CSE), there are some people who have gotten the Surface Workstation SDK to work with x64 OS and/or Visual Studio 2010. Try these links, or search for more - and USE AT YOUR OWN RISK:

x64 (grumpydev)
Dev with C# 2010   (alternate)


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