Microsoft is adding a magic touch. Microsoft said Monday that it has agreed to buy Perceptive Pixel Inc., which makes large, multi-touch displays, including CNN’s “Magic Wall.”
The software giant plans to power these displays with Windows 8, slated for release in October.
Perceptive Pixel has been a familiar fixture on CNN shows since the Magic Wall’s debut in the 2008 elections. Viewers have watched anchors like John King swipe and poke at the sprawling display to zoom in on data and graphics.
Microsoft already had similar technology in house: Its 2007 “Microsoft Surface” touchscreen technology, created for tabletops and retail displays, had similar features. Microsoft recently hijacked — or recycled — the “Surface” name as the branding for its forthcoming tablet. Its earlier giant-screen Surface technology was renamed PixelSense. MSNBC used the original Microsoft Surface for its 2008 election coverage, while ABC, Bloomberg, ESPN, Fox News and others joined CNN in adopting Perceptive Pixel screens.
Microsoft plans add the interactive display to its Microsoft Office division “to build technologies that enable people to collaborate and communicate,” Perceptive Pixel founder Jeff Han said in a written statement.
Microsoft did not immediately return calls seeking comment about the product overlap between Perceptive Pixel and the company’s own PixelSense line.
Perceptive Pixel, a six-year-old company based in New York City, started working with CNN after running into CNN executives at a military trade show. Back in 2008, Han told CNN that his company’s main clients are “three-letter agencies, classified work, a lot of secret stuff.”
