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As Tuesday winds down, we’re getting ready for tomorrow’s festivities.  As you may already know, Microsoft’s Bill Gates and Apple’s Steve Jobs plan on sharing the stage tomorrow at D: All Things Digital conference in Carlsbad, California.

It has been speculated that Microsoft / Gates could be announcing a new touch-sensitive table, AKA the PlayTable, or Project Milan multi-touch (we’ll call it the PlayTable since it sounds the best).  The PlayTable is essentially what Bill Gates has been touting for several years now at the Consumer Electronics Show as the start of the integrated home.  According to ZDNet’s Mary Jo Foley, the PlayTable has been demonstrated to a lot of folks lately, and can be described as a “multi-touch, gestural- and object-recognition interface technology.“

More on the PlayTable’s possible specs after the break.

According to Gizmodo, the PlayTable will likely be 23-25 inches diagonal, and will include the following specs:

• Music - You put your music player on the table, and your credit card. Both are recognized, then you drag songs to the player. Zune is an obvious first device, but potential other partner in the works. One demo used a nano. Could partner really be Apple? Let’s not get carried away… yet.
• Virtual Concierge - A fairly self explanatory guide program, complete with mapping programs
• Food & Drink - Not just interactive menus, but glass (and presumably plate and maybe even silverware) recognition. Like Music program, it reads credit cards just by placing them on table.
• Photo - A simple photo editor reminiscent of iPhoto
• Puzzle - A game where you assemble actual pieces of glass on top of the table, each with a sliver of live video playing
• Water - A water screensaver that you can touch to make ripples
• Paint - Simple painting program that reads pressure sensitivity by judging the size of your fingerprint

Read [Scobleizer] Read [Gizmodo]

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