Yesterday, Microsoft launched a new website with it a new project: The Art of Touch. Visitors are invited to let themselves inspired by the power of touch technology and to create artworks. “It’s a worldwide digital canvas”, announces the site that also challenges visitors to enter a competition.
The purpose of this website is to generate interest for three new touch mice, released by the company. Netizens are invited to resurface their inner child as they doodle with three brushes with different shapes and sizes and. The users cannot select the palette but that doesn’t mean that the artworks are dull, on the contrary it increases the fun level.
The brushes that move at different speeds generate different colours. The resulted artwork can be printed, saved on the site or shared on the social networks. Brave would-be artists can even make T-shirts or coffee mugs with their artworks. There is even a challenge for users to enter their drawings in a competition to win in the last day of this year a computer and a mouse, or weekly surprise prizes, meaning packages with Microsoft products, provided they get enough votes from other users.
The site works with any mouse, doesn’t necessarily require Microsoft latest technology and it also works on a touch pad or laptop. The tablet users cannot play though, as finger strokes would affect the size or the position of the canvas.
Meant to be playful yet with obvious marketing intentions of increasing awareness, The Art of Touch project is described as a “social experiment” by Ben Reed, a senior manager in Microsoft’s hardware group.
