14 DAY TRIAL // Savant is a company that doesn't ring any bell to me, but seeing this has made me look at it from a different perspective. These guys have created the ROSIE Coffee Table Touchpanel Controller, which is probably the latest home gizmo that combines the functionality of a simple to use coffee table with the interactive multimedia capabilities.
In fact, Rosie is "the fat of the land" in the company's portfolio, as it was officially recognized as one of the Electronic House Products of the year 2007, by Electronic House magazine. The same controller house was carefully inserted under the layers of the wooden table and ingeniously connected to an Apple-based touch panel that can connect itself to iTunes, IP network devices, digital cameras, card readers and more.
According to Gizmag, the director of product management at Savant, Victor Saverino stated: " The ROSIE Coffee Table is truly the evolution of interactive technology, it can seamlessly download photos from digital cameras, play music, movies, and TV shows as well as accomplish complete home control all from within one elegant forty-inch interface."
Apparently, this baby does more than holding your steamy coffee. Not to mention the creative minds behind this concept thought about inserting this technology into different styles of furniture, to suit any type of home furniture. Now that's what I call a nice mixture of styles.
The same Gizmag says that mighty Microsoft itself is preparing to launch a similar product, which apparently is going to be called "The Surface". They say it's going to be a 30 inch coffee table display. It will feature the same natural gesture response and direct interaction with the object, with the only difference that it is going to aim at the masses, especially the public spaces in hotels, restaurants and less for your living room. You can always count on Rosie for that!
All in all, this new trend proves the continuous effort in the industry's struggle to find new ways to make people forget about crowded lives and enjoy a cup of virtual interaction.
I couldn't find the Rosie video on the Internet, therefore I can only show you Microsoft's Surface:
