As you probably already know, Microsoft unveiled the Surface Dial yesterday at the Windows 10 event in New York City. In an interview with Tom Warren from The Verge, Terry Myerson discussed additional plans for radial menus, the Surface Dial, and how third party manufacturers could make similar Surface Dial devices.
Microsoft already highlighted that the Surface Dial, a radial haptic input device, will allow artists to gain complete control over their creations, but the Windows President tells The Verge that the company is working with additional partners:
Everything we’re doing here, we’re actively working with partners on their own expression of the idea… We put a lot of R&D into creating these. We’re going to try lots of ideas, and we’re going to develop some of them and get really serious about them, but then all of this technology is available to our partners… I look forward to them taking the pieces of it and creating their own expression for their own customers.
The interview also discussed how the Surface Dial was created with the vision of the user utilizing both hands (the other one holding a pen), to “bring them into the full creative zone.” Myerson also said that there are “no grand plans to make [radial menus] the new menu” everywhere across Windows, but rather, “in specific places where they’ve felt exactly right.”
Do you envision other PC manufacturers making radial haptic input devices? How do you see the device being used in Windows moving forward? As always, drop us a comment below to let us know your thoughts!
