Tag: Microsoft Surface

Toyota Scion “Microsoft Surface Experience”

You walk up to a Microsoft Surface table at a Scion auto show stand and pick up one of the collectible cards. You place it on the table and the surface immediately reacts. Photos, video content, regional sales information, and localized events appear around the card. You flip the card over and it triggers a musical element. Beats, bass, or vocals. When all eight cards are on the table at the same time, the full song plays and the table turns into a simple, social remix station.

Auto shows as a lab for new interfaces

At the 2011 International Motor Show in Frankfurt, the pattern is easy to spot first-hand. The brands that win attention make exploration physical and obvious.

The activation. Scion meets Microsoft Surface

If you visit upcoming auto shows late this year or in 2012, you can run into the Scion Surface Experience, built on Microsoft Surface tables. Toyota’s agency Juxt Interactive designs the experience to let visitors explore Scion’s product, racing, and cultural affiliations in an unexpected way.

How it works. Eight cards, two sides

The interaction is built around a deck of eight collectible cards:

  • Place a card on the Surface and the table reveals photos, video content, regional sales information, and localized events.
  • Flip the card over and it triggers one element of a song, such as beats, bass, or vocals.
  • Place all eight cards on the Surface at once and the full song plays.

Once the full track is unlocked, guests can remix the song in their own way. It reinforces the self-expression that sits at the core of the Scion brand story.

In auto show environments, where multiple brands compete for brief attention in the same hall, interfaces that make participation obvious outperform passive display messaging.

The take-home loop. Physical tokens for digital content

The cards do not end when the stand visit ends. Guests can take their cards home and use them to download digital content connected to the auto show experience. The business intent is clear: use play to pull visitors into deeper product content, then extend recall beyond the booth with a take-home trigger.

Why this works. Exploration first, messaging second

This is a clean example of experiential design where the interface creates the interest. The collectible cards make the first step easy, the Surface makes the response immediate, and the “complete the set” mechanic rewards curiosity. The “complete the set” mechanic means each added card reveals more value, so the interaction naturally pulls people toward finishing the sequence together. Because each added card changes the output immediately, the table turns product exploration into a visible group activity, which keeps people engaged longer than a passive stand screen.

Extractable takeaway: When you want people to explore branded content, give them a physical trigger, an immediate digital response, and a group reward for going deeper.

The real question is how to turn product exploration into something people want to start, continue, and share with the people beside them.

What to steal from this interface-led booth

  • Make the first move physical. Use a tangible trigger that is obvious, low-friction, and instantly responsive.
  • Turn content into discovery. Let people unlock information through curiosity, not a forced linear demo.
  • Design for small groups. Build in a reason to collaborate, compare, and “complete the set” together.
  • Extend the moment beyond the booth. Give visitors a take-home token that continues the experience after the event.

A few fast answers before you act

What is the Toyota Scion Microsoft Surface Experience?

An auto show installation that uses Microsoft Surface tables and eight collectible cards to explore Scion content and trigger a music remix experience.

What happens when a card is placed on the table?

The Surface reveals photos, video content, regional sales information, and localized events tied to the stand experience.

What happens when the card is flipped?

It triggers a part of a song, such as beats, bass, or vocals.

Why are there eight cards?

Placing all eight cards on the Surface at the same time unlocks the full song, and turns the table into a simple remix station.

What is the lasting value beyond the booth moment?

Visitors can take the cards home and use them to download digital content related to the auto show experience.

Gesture Sharing using Microsoft Surface

You place two iPhones and an iPad around a Microsoft Surface table. With a single gesture, a photo slides off one device, travels across the tabletop, and drops into another device. The transfer is instant, and the UI makes it feel like content is physically moving between screens.

Amnesia Razorfish is back in the news with the launch of Amnesia Connect. It is software that enables instant, seamless sharing and transfer of content, including photos, music, and embedded apps, between multiple handheld devices using a Microsoft Surface table and a single gesture. Here, gesture sharing means a swipe across the Surface table that triggers a direct handoff of content between nearby devices.

How the “single gesture” illusion works

In the moment, the Surface table connects devices over WiFi and shares in real time. The table tracks each object’s position, so the visual effect stays locked to the device placement. Because the visuals stay locked to each device’s position, the transfer feels credible rather than arbitrary. Content appears to move in and out of the iPad and iPhone exactly where they sit on the table.

What is supported right now, and what comes next

The software works with Apple iOS devices, and it is being developed to work with Android, Windows Phone, and BlackBerry smartphones. The concept scales anywhere multiple devices need to share quickly without cables, menus, or friction. In multi-device brand experiences, that matters because several people can understand the transfer at the same time.

Why brands care about gesture-based sharing

As smartphones become omnipresent, this kind of interaction opens a different design space for brand experiences. The strongest part of the idea is not the transfer alone, but the way it turns sharing into something people can instantly see and understand together. The real question is not whether the table can pass content between devices, but whether the brand can make that transfer feel natural, social, and self-explanatory. The business value is that the interaction demonstrates the benefit in public, instead of relying on explanation.

Extractable takeaway: When a digital action is turned into a visible group moment, the brand does less explaining and the product benefit becomes easier to grasp.

What to steal for multi-device sharing

  • Make “sharing” visible. If content looks like it physically moves between screens, people immediately understand what happened.
  • Remove menus from the core action. The gesture should be the transfer, not a shortcut to a dialog box.
  • Use spatial consistency as the magic trick. When the UI stays locked to where devices sit, the illusion feels real.
  • Design for group participation. Multi-device interactions work best when they create a moment people can do together, in plain sight.

A few fast answers before you act

What is gesture sharing in a multi-device experience?

Gesture sharing is when users move content between devices through physical gestures, like swiping an item from one screen to another, rather than using menus, Bluetooth pairing, or file dialogs.

How does a Microsoft Surface table enable this?

The table tracks where devices sit and aligns the interface to that physical layout. It also supports real-time connectivity so content can transfer while the visuals stay spatially consistent.

What makes this feel “seamless” to users?

The key is removing steps. No selecting recipients, no attaching files, no waiting screens. The motion itself becomes the transfer, and the UI reinforces that mental model.

Why is this stronger than a normal send flow?

A normal send flow hides the action inside menus and confirmations. This pattern makes the transfer visible, immediate, and shared, so people understand both the feature and the benefit at a glance.

Where can brands apply this pattern?

Anywhere shared exploration matters. Retail demonstrations, event installations, collaborative product discovery, and multi-screen storytelling all benefit when “sharing” becomes a visible group interaction.