Microsoft: "Space is the new frontier"

Not galactic discovery, more touch, gesture, and speech to immerse you in your gadgets

6 May 2009 12:38 GMT / By Stuart Miles

Microsoft has said that it sees technology moving into a more context centric spatial computing model, rather than just delivering information through data displayed on a page.

Claiming “Space is the new frontier”, Andrew Herbert, MD for Microsoft’s Research lab in Cambridge UK, outlined that more and more gadgets in the future will involve gesture, touch and speech to interact with, as computer makers try to immerse you into the experience.

“If you could have a piece of technology that actually talks to you in your way, that might be a better way of delivering information to you”, said the top man at Cambridge.

Rather than just wheel out the Microsoft Surface, Herbert uses a yet unseen example to demonstrate what Microsoft Research envisages, the company showed Pocket-lint a video of a piece of software acting as a receptionist ordering a taxi service for lab workers around one of Microsoft’s campuses.

The software is able to work out what the people are requesting, whether or not they are employees and order a taxi to the relevant place before sending them on their way.

Although still considerably raw in its delivery, the system, say scientists at the research campus, could replace the receptionist when the front desk is closed.

Full tags

Gadgets, Microsoft