Microsoft Surface Hub officially announced

Microsoft Surface Hub

Besides showcasing their progress on Windows 10, Microsoft also unveiled the Surface Hub. The Surface Hub is essentially a huge Surface aimed at enterprise customers with touch capabilities and handwriting recognition.

The Surface Hub will be available in two sizes – a 55 inch and a 84 inch model. Both variants has 4K resolutions with 120Hz refresh rates, which means the display will refresh every 8.33 milliseconds, which should offer butter smooth visuals, animations and transitions. To make the experience even better, Microsoft will ship the Surface Hub with fourth-generation Intel Core i5 or i7 processors.

You may have noticed that the Hub comes with two cameras on either side of the display, these cameras are full-HD and work together to produce a super wide-angle image of virtually the entire room so that those watching will have everyone in sight. The cameras can also follow speakers and focus on them as they walk around the room.

An array of directional microphones similar to the ones used in the Xbox Kinect sensor also support speakers to ensure that their voice is heard loud and clear while background noises are eliminated. Other sensors let the Surface Hub know when people are nearby, so it instantly wakes up and is ready to go.

Microsoft Surface Hub UI

Software wise, you get Windows 10 with the Hub specific apps alongside the universal Windows apps which will scale to suite the large screened device.  You also get the Ink handwriting software and the ability to draw on anything you see should make the large screens perfect for meetings. Microsoft also showcased integration with Skype for Business and a “OneNote-based Whiteboard” that users can work on simultaneously.

Content on the Hub can be shared wirelessly via Miracast-connected devices so meeting participants can view and manipulate the content on their own devices. With such an intuitive tool, collaboration becomes seamless, instant, and barrier-free.

Microsoft Surface Hub usage

Besides the large screen displays, the Surface Hub will feature a host of I/Os which include wireless projection, HDMI, NFC, Bluetooth and what Microsoft is calling ‘ports to connect to peripheral devices.’ Microsoft also mentioned that the Surface Hub can identify its users, but didn’t explain this feature in detail.

Microsoft stated that the Surface Hub will be available later this year, but kept quiet on how much it will cost. While the Surface Hub is primarily aimed at the enterprise, it also opens up possibilities of what we can expect in the future of consumer markets.

source – Microsoft

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