Surface Technology from Microsoft

Microsoft has unveiled "Surface," a tabletop computer with multi-user touch-screen interface. Surface's slick site shows various uses for the device, which appears to be able to discern the touch of a finger from a paintbrush or from a mobile phone.I think touch-based interfaces are pretty useful, but instead of looking at the big picture, glancing ahead towards a resurgence in tabletop gaming, I'm going to focus on the banal: Who wants to wipe this thing down every 15 minutes? Seriously. Surface is demonstrated as a smart replacement for a table. Think about the last time you were in your local coffee shop--did you spend a lot of time pawing at the table with your cheese-danish-coated fingers? Of course not.

Currently I could see this being used in bars. Image sitting around a sleek black table with a bunch of your friends and all of a sudden you notice your drink is empty. What do you do? You order a new one, except you don’t see the waitress anywhere near. Look to the table! You touch the table top, browse through the selection of drinks and slide your choice towards the Order section. Voila! The bartender receives your order and within minutes (hopefully) your waitress drops off your drink!

Do I see a future in a product like this? Sure! Will Microsoft send me one so that I can play with it? Probably not because Microsoft probably doesn’t know I exist and if they did, would they send me one of these tables (probably going to retail for like $8,000->$10,000) to play around with?
I’m just glad that there are people out there that are ‘thinking outside the box’.
What do you think? Will this type of technology become something useful? Is it really just a big touchscreen?