Microsoft's latest development, touch screen surface computers, has been released, and the American casino industry was the first place to test the new technology. Debuting in Harrah's Entertainment Casino, the new screens have been installed as an attempt to attract new kinds of guests to the venue.
Harrah's is the second business to have employed the new Microsoft touch screen computers following AT&T, and they are designed to essentially turn table-tops into touch screen computers. Costing $10,000 each, the screens do not come cheap, yet Harrah's Casino has already ordered 6 of them.
The screen was installed into a gaming table at one of the bars in the Rio All Suite Hotel and Casino, belonging to Harrah's. The casino also developed its very own software for the touch screen computers and fitted them with cameras. Some of the features of the technology include: access to Youtube, videogames that can be played whilst waiting for drinks, an application for ordering drinks called "Mixologists" whereby customers can mix unique drinks with the bartender and remember it for future orders, a flirting application that allows communication with other tables, chat, photography and email, and an information database which displays all the casino attractions.
According to the General Manager of Microsoft Surface, Pete Thompson, the new touch screen computers will allow visitors at Las Vegas to virtually stroll down the casino strip without leaving what he calls the "ibar".
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