Microsoft sees future of computing in “gesture, touch and voice”
Microsoft is looking to build upon the success of its revolutionary Kinect system, a camera which can track a persons movements and translate them into on screen movement.
Craig Mundie, Microsoft’s chief research and strategy officer, told the Telegraph that the “natural user interface” of Kinect offered a glimpse into a future where “gesture, touch and voice” recognition will enable computers to perform mundane tasks.
Describing Kinect as a “disruptive” technology that represents a “significant leap” forward, Mundie says: “For a long time, the computer has been used as a tool. We have been trying to work out how to make it more like a helper, so that it acts with a degree of autonomy, understands you, and starts to become intuitive.”
In the future, Mundie believes, people will migrate from interacting with small scale computing devices and move toward room size interaction with walls. “We are already seeing this through things like telepresence”, notes Mundie. “There will be screens that people carry around with them and unroll and use them on the wall.”
Dismissing sceptical reaction to the proposed changes the Microsoft researcher observed: “…we are just getting warmed up. There is more opportunity for world changing things now than ever before.”