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Surface is a coffee-table-sized device, with a 30in touchscreen powered by infra-red cameras and a projector, allowing people to move objects on the screen with their fingertips.

A variant on its touch technology was last week demonstrated as a new feature of the forthcoming Windows 7. But Bach said he nearly halted the project. "I probably thought about killing it every year it was in development," admitted Bach, in an interview

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with Cnet. "I didn't have a clear line of sight on what the business model was. I was always asking myself whether we could afford to keep it."

Bach admitted to being slightly concerned about the size, quipping: "We don't want to be in the furniture business", before suggesting he was looking forward to the smaller, consumer model that Microsoft is apparently working on.

Despite his misgivings, Bach says Bill Gates was always a big fan of the technology, which isn't too surprising given his comments last month that he would like to turn every surface into a touchscreen.

Surface is currently being rolled out to the Sheraton hotel group Harrah's casinos and AT&T shops, at around $10,000 a table.

We had a chance to play with Surface at the CeBIT conference in Hannover and were impressed. Find out more here.