Rio Surfaced

While I was in Vegas I had the opportunity to go to the Rio hotel and casino and to the bar with Microsoft Surface tables in it. At first I was really quite amazed at how seamlessly they worked with the decor and surroundings but as I explored them further there were a few usability issues with them.

So start with, nobody was really ‘using them’. I sat down with a few other people at one of the tables, they were trying to communicate with the table next to us. On the screen was a CCTV feed from all the other active tables. It seemed as though you had to drag and drop words from the sides to the screen and the message would send. This didn’t happen, to the point where we were running backwards and forwards between the tables defeating the point of the casual flirty comment between tables.

Another thing was that nobody was putting their drinks on the actual screen, even though cool effects happen when you do, nobody seemed to have noticed this. The problem was that there was a rim round the edge that was a different colour to the screen so people put their glasses on the edge as they didn’t want to break the screen.

I’m sure there were many more features that these tables have (like ordering drinks and playing games etc) but after the initial frustration with the technology nobody seemed interested in exploring further. The average usage time from what I observed was less than 10 minutes.

The more you drink, the more you want it to work but the less it does.

All in all, it was a gimmick for the bar and for Microsoft.

On The Surface It’s All About Sex

After searching YouTube for a while today looking for new and interesting things and stuff, I came across an advert for Microsoft Surface technology. The Rio in Las Vegas has recently installed Surface and the ad demonstrates a few ways in which the technology can be used. The usual things appear such as seeing what is on at the Rio, what there is to do in Vegas and ordering drinks from the table. The main focus of the ad however is flirting.

The video shows girls using Surface to control ceiling mounted cameras above other tables to ogle men, then it allows them to send a message to that person or table. The guy then orders a drink and has it delivered to the girls’ table, all without leaving his seat. I like the integration of an instant messaging system and the new slant on the technology but I feel that the sexual undertones the voice-over suggests are far too optimistic. Now you don’t actually have to stand up to order a drink you don’t have worry about staggering over to the bar, falling flat on your face and embarrassing yourself.

No more is Surface simply resizing and moving around images and video (which is what you normally see in touch screen demos) and the premise of social interaction seems to be a good one, especially in an environment where everything is to excess.

I am going to be in Las Vegas in August so I will definitely be checking this out first hand and let you know what it is actually like to interact with.

As they say, sex sells. So why not use it to sell Microsoft Surface technology? Now it seems like there may be a use for it after all.