Eschewing the trend to make computers smaller, more personal and portable, Microsoft has unveiled a new, touch-sensitive, coffee-table-sized machine.

Recalling the 1980s cocktail-table versions of arcade games, such as Pac-Man, the device, dubbed "Surface", is a Windows Vista PC, encased in a shiny black table base, topped with a 30-inch touchscreen.

Click here for a video of the new computer.

Five cameras that can sense nearby objects are mounted beneath the screen. Users can interact with the computer by touching or dragging their fingertips and objects, such as paintbrushes, across it. Alternatively, items tagged with special bar-code labels are recognised when set on top of the table.

The fruit of six years' worth of research and expected to cost between $5,000 (£2,500) and $10,000, Surface is not initially being aimed at the consumer market and will first appear in communal areas, such as shops, hotel lobbies, casinos and bars.

The group plans to bring prices down to consumer levels in three to five years.

Steve Ballmer, the Microsoft chief executive, said: "We see this as a multibillion dollar category, and we envision a time when surface computing technologies will be pervasive, from tabletops and counters to the hallway mirror."

However, despite dominating the software market, Microsoft's record in hardware is mixed. An attempt to revolutionise the PC by pushing "Tablet" machines — which are, essentially, one big touch screen — flopped and its Zune music player is yet to trouble Apple’s iPod. By contrast, its Xbox games console has made solid inroads into its market.

Meanwhile, Surface also comes as groups including Apple concentrate on miniaturised, handheld gadgets such as the iPhone — a device that analysts say resembles a portable computer as much as a telephone.

But the coffee-table-esque Surface does appear to fit in with Microsoft's long-term vision of the digital home of the future, in which computers often feature inside furniture and other household fittings.

A showcase of "tangible prototypes" at the group's Seattle headquarters includes a talking, listening user interface called "Grace" (installed inside a wall) — as well as computerised kitchen work surfaces, which can recognise ingredients and guide on recipes, and ceiling-installed "lightcams" that can beam animated place settings on to dining tables.

Other Microsoft prototypes include LED wallpaper, a super-thin lighting technology being developed in partnership with Philips, the Dutch electronics group, which can be programmed to give different backgrounds or to show webcam-style views into other children’s rooms via the internet. The feature replicates an online networking site-style environment in the physical world, Microsoft says.

The Surface computers are set to arrive in November in T-Mobile USA stores, where they will be used to help customers choose new phones, and in properties owned by Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide and Harrah’s Entertainment.

Guests sitting in some Starwood Hotel lobbies will be able to cluster around the Surface to play music, then buy songs using a credit card or rewards card tagged with a bar code. In some hotel restaurants, customers will be able to order food and drinks, then split the bill by setting down a card or a room key and dragging their menu items “on to” the card.

At Harrah’s locations, visitors will be able to learn about nearby Harrah’s venues on an interactive map, then book show tickets or make dinner reservations.

Michael Gartenberg, an analyst at Jupiter Research, said that the technology is “important for Microsoft as a promising new business, as well as demonstrating very concretely to the market that Microsoft still knows how to innovate, and innovate in a big way”.

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