Perspective Pixel takes Office 365 to a New Scale

What’s the biggest computer you’ve ever used? We’re not talking “computers-used-to-be-the-size-of-a-room” big here, but a modern, functioning machine that can run everything you’d expect it to.

Back in March, Microsoft released a webinar showing off an 82-inch touch screen, and rather than doing a tech demo with software the public will never really see, they showed off Microsoft Office.

There are a couple big takeaways from this webinar, especially if you haven’t been paying terribly close attention to some of Microsoft’s recent updates to Office and Office 365.

1. That’s a really, really big screen. – It’s the 82-inch version of Microsoft’s Perspective Pixel display, and it’s a little insane… in the best way. Remember that “this is the future” feeling you had the first time you interacted with a touchscreen device and had it do what you wanted it to? Watching Microsoft’s Doug Thomas pilot Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote by using full arm gestures to manipulate giant objects seems like something straight out of science fiction.

2. That’s just Windows. – With the touch controls built into the core of the latest versions of Windows, we’re at the point where even an 82-inch touch screen can just run the OS basically out of the box. In a lot of ways, the Perspective Pixel display is a really big Surface, so all of the handwriting, drawing and touch controls you’re used to on your table show up on this larger screen version.

3. Excel is way less boring than it used to be. – Toward the end of the webinar, we get a great look at Power Map for Excel, a program that allows users to take Excel data that involves geographic information and really make it come alive. With the addition of the Perspective Pixel display, Thomas is able to do more than just make the data pretty; he’s able to manipulate it and walk us through it on a scale that’s pretty impressive.

Obviously, the Perspective Pixel display isn’t something that’s going to wind up in every home or replace your laptop or tablet. Some of this technology, however, seems poised to change the way we think about our data and the ways we interact with our devices, whether we’re presenting information or just taking notes.