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Microsoft's Mundie Sees a Future In Spatial Computing
An anonymous reader writes "Speaking at the MIT Emerging Technology Conference, Microsoft Chief Research and Strategy Officer Craig Mundie explained that he sees the industry evolving into 'spatial computing,' and he envisions a 3-D virtual world populated by virtual presences, using a combination of client and cloud services. 'In a few months, the compay plans to test a new virtual reception assistant in some of its campus buildings. The assistant, which takes the form of an avatar, helps schedule shuttle reservations to get people to various locations across the 10-million-square-foot Redmond, Wash., campus. The system includes array microphones and natural language processing by which the avatar listens to the subjects and then interacts with them in real time. The system has been programmed to differentiate people by their clothing. Someone in a suit, for instance, would more likely be a visitor and not a potential shuttle rider.'"
I wondered when Clippy would resurface... Looks like he'll have a new job soon.
Irony: Agile development has too much intertia to be abandoned now.
but you don't see it on the front page of slashdot.
Well. Isn't that spatial.
And would we be silly to assume that they've made some improvements to their speech recognition software since it was demoed in vista?
db
I am literally 3000 tokens away from the chaotic crossbow --Stephen
So would one enter this virtual 3-D world through the previously mentioned Internet Filtering Lobby?
... the Blue Avatar of Death!!!
So, he's predicting basically the same thing as every post-1985 Cyberpunk author. That's not really a story.
I would have liked to read more about the visual recognition software that the summary mentioned, but the article was (predictably) short on details.
Now, about the voice interaction part of that software... I don't really understand why someone would want to slow themselves down to the speed of speech (unless they're blind). It takes a minute for someone to hear information that they can read in a matter of seconds. I think this is mostly flash.
Will it help them find Waldo?
...where thousands of sci-fi books have gone before!
They were right - the revolution did not get televised. It was posted on YouTube instead. All in 120 characters. SLOOSH!
Microsoft 3D Bob -- the running joke of the future.
Nah, I think the future is a big ol' gob of Win32.
Does anyone know of a good cheap one for a desktop PC, preferably pure digital (using something such as the AKU2002)? It seems like array mics should be cheap and easy to make, but almost nobody does it.
Whats a Mundie? And where can I get one?
I'd been wanting something that could see into the future.
Something just doesn't settle right with a computer that tries to determine your purpose (essentially "who you are") based on selection of clothing. The progression of this technology seems to have some potentially chilly effects. At the same time there is real value in the research of AI. I just hope we know what to do with it when we get "there".
I don't see much future for Microsoft.
you had me at #!
Space: the final frontier. This are the voyages of the Windows Special for Enterprises, to explore strange new virtual world, to seek new second lifes and adquisitions, to boldly go where no blue screen has gone before.
Hey Microsoft, I've got news for you. We've had computers in space since at least the Apollo program.
Sheesh, these guys think they're so smart...
We hope your rules and wisdom choke you / Now we are one in everlasting peace
Flying chairs.
But not in the next 50 years. I would love if my computer could serve as an omniscient "super secretary". If I could, for example, just say to it "I want to go to Chicago on Friday, book airline tickets, coach, no connections, in the evening, lowest cost. Return flight next Friday around the same time. Also reserve taxi to and from the airport, and a room the same hotel as last time I went there." Or let it find you a new job, given your experience and a list of available positions. Or ask for a concise summary on relative merits of top 7.1 home theater sound systems under $1K. Etc, etc. The list is endless.
This is not to say that Mundie has a "vision" - my impression of him is that he will tell you anything to justify Microsoft paying him $1M a year in combined compensation. However, you can't deny the appeal of a truly natural user interface.
I wish they'd just call it virtual reality.
The system has been programmed to differentiate people by their clothing. Someone in a suit, for instance, would more likely be a visitor and not a potential shuttle rider.
Because nothing says "Good Idea" like differentiating between people based on their appearance.
For the past 15 years, Microsoft has been making grand predictions about the future of computer and has taken on numerous projects in furtherance of those visions.
However, history has shown that Microsoft is really only good at one thing -- denying third parties access to components of their operating system that would allow for fair competition.
Fortunately, as Microsoft predicted, the web has provided an alternative platform that leveled the playing field. Which I guess means that Microsoft is good at a second thing -- predicting their own downfall.
So. Is "spatial computing" the new buzzword replacing the old "virtual reality", or is there anything deeper about "spatial computing" that I'm missing?
I choose.. the warlock!
"entering combat"
"bill gates is afflicted by fear"
"bill gates gains blessing of BSA lobbyists"
"bill gates suffers 940 damage from your deathcoil (shadow)"
"bill gates is afficted by fear"
"bill gates suffers 9,450 damage from your soul fire (fire)"
"you have slain mitch bainwol!"
VLC FOR MAC IS DYING! IF YOU DEVELOP, PLEASE SAVE IT!!
Maybe Mundie found old stories from "Olivetti & Oracle Research Lab (ORL), which was then owned by Olivetti and Oracle Corporation. In 1999 AT&T acquired the lab" - they had interesting environment where everything followed you - music, phones, whatever, and you had your own avatar to show and connect. Some good came out of it as the free VNC, of course until AT&T closed the whole thing, they don't need research?
Now, "virtual" presence is kind of weird, how to define it? Let me explain - in 80's I had a "virtual presence" in several large customers systems I was kind of supporting. So, I was present in those systems, banks, manufacturing, government, academia, etc in real time, all the time(!) - through our monitoring and support system using any office computer, my own home computers (well, home computing is not new now?), our PBX connecting either the national telephone network or the satellite network to my pagers, the "world wide" X.25 network so I could access any of those system even from other side of the globe.
Tells you something of the academia - five years later just for fun connecting to my "avatar" in their system and it still was there !! with all the access rights to all their systems! I had to call them and tell the new operators, sorry admins, how to disable it.
So - it is cool and 3D will be even better but not anything new except the bandwidth needed, the problem is how you manage the avatars once they go roaming around?
If you had an artificial secretary that could do the things you mentioned, then there would be no job for you because AI would have been solved.
Microsoft and Intel are led by aging baby boomers who have run out of good ideas simply because they are too old and set in their ways. They still think in 20th century mode. They have no clue as to how to solve the parallel programming crisis and they speak about the future as if a solution were a fait accompli. Whoever is the first to come out with the correct solution will rocket right past them and they won't know what happened until it's too late. Personally, I am tired of Windows and x86-based processors. But then again, Linux is just as old as Windows. Doesn't matter. Soon they will all go the way of the Dodo.
I saw Microsoft and Mundie together, and my first thought was "Sic transit gloria mundi", but then I thought that no, its not all lost, I run Linux. The glory still sits on my computer.
mundie? The halloween-document idiot? he still around? didn't he get sarbane-oxlied, or finance-leverage crushed by now?
They didn't have to execute every code by speaking orders in virtual world. no wonder it is so s02032139391993 f0020 200f 0200d0 330
That's just the screen saver.
This article brings Vernor Vinge's
Rainbows End
to my mind. It's a science fiction book set out in the near future where people use personal gear to operate in a virtual reality that is globally connected. The spatial web seems to have many similarities to it. A good read, I recommend!
Pants up butt-crack - Bill Gates
Carrying stack of chairs - Ballmer's PA
Bristling with fragmented chair splinters - Ballmer's PA
Sporting a wedgie - has worn a Zune in public
Shoes on wrong feet - Windows Vista Guru
Wearing a food-stained straight-jacket - Mojave experiment subject
Wearing a suit - Prey. Launch the sales droids!
--- Yx3 = Delilah ---
I don't really understand why someone would want to slow themselves down to the speed of speech (unless they're blind).
You might be surprised. I once got a personal demonstration by TV Ramen of his Emacspeak and was blown away. The speech output went out so fast I could not follow it.
Blind folks don't need to be handicapped on computers if idiot "web designers" would cooperate a bit more.
Sadly, TV Ramen was working for Adobe at the time, I do not know what he is doing now.
Spatial computing? What we need is aural computing, computing by voice commands. I blame Apple for popularizing the graphical user interface. Massive amounts of time and resources have been devoted by programmers and software designers to perfect the GUI, first windows now full-blown virtual presences (avatars or is it MS Bob 2010?). If the Unix command prompt triumphed (maybe even in its anemic DOS mutation), we will now have true artificial intelligence. Remember Stanley Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke's Space Odyessey? The vision of that sci-fi movie was for people to order computers around, not to massage them like teledildonic lovers. It wouldn't have been that much of a technological leap for "$ls Directory_Foo" to evolve to "Hal, please list the contents of Directory Foo".
I don't like Mundies.
Tell me why
I don't like Mund-i-ies.
A silicon chip inside his head
Was switched to overload
Nobody's gonna care about this news
Coz his head wi-ill assplode.
And Ballmer doesn't understand it
He always said he was as good as Gates
And he can see no reasons
Coz there are no reasons
What reason do you need to be show-ow-ow-ow-own?
Tell me why
I don't like Mundies.
Tell me why
I don't like Mund-i-ies.
Tell me why
I don't like Mundies.
I wanna lo-oo-oo-oo-oo-ock the whole box down!
"Your reservation for 'Dear aunt, let's set so double the killer delete select all' is not possible. Would you like some help with that?"
"The shuttle destination 'stupidf@$kingclippyclone' has no spare capacity left, were would you like to go today?"
I see lots of possibilities here...
Well. Isn't that spatial.
Nope, it's VerySpatial! ;-)
Joking aside, Microsoft is *very serious* about the geospatial involvement. Here's a list of their recent geospatial products and services. But more to the point, this week, Microsoft launched Virtual Earth 6.2. Make no mistake, it's a huge improvement and offers elements Google Earth and virtual globes competitors (such as the open source NASA World Wind) don't yet.
Just take a look at the new 3D clouds in Virtual Earth which are real-time weather based, this is impressive.
Learn more here, and my summary:
"Microsoft just released Virtual Earth 6.2 and Virtual Earth Web Services 1.0. The quantity of new features is huge and are worth taking a look at, here's the highlights but follow the link for the details: " # Maps for Mobile Devices. # Birdâ(TM)s Eye Views and Birdâ(TM)s Eye Hybrid. # Aerial Imagery. # 3D Imagery. # Geocoding and Reverse Geocoding. # International Geocoding. # Localized Directions. # Localized Maps. # Extended International Parsing Capabilities. # Expanded Number of Rooftop Views. # Near-Matching Capabilities. # Imagery Metadata. # New Virtual Earth Web Services. # One-Click Directions. # Shapes and Shape Layers. # Pushpin Clustering. # Landmark-Based Routing. # Driving Directions with Traffic-Based Routing. # Walking Directions. # Multipoint Routing. # Traffic Reports. # GeoRSS Feeds. " I expect geoblog reactions in the coming days and will share them with our users. See also related stories below, Microsoft has been very busy lately with their geoservices."
Animoog.org
I think blaming Apple is giving them too much credit. There were half a dozen companies offering machines with graphical user interfaces around the time the Mac came out. Apple wasn't the first and they weren't the most successful one either.
What I really blame Apple for is not doing a better job on the software architecture. The original Mac's toolbox copied much of Xerox's user interface apperance, but almost nothing of the elegant architecture. Even the NeXT machine that came out a few years later was a poor imitation of Xerox's Smalltalk environment.
Wow, virtual worlds, locating people, natural language processing! What obvious, old idea do you want to copy today, Microsoft?
... got any spare red pills?
Have gnu, will travel.
The "secretary" example is doable with technologies we have today. It does not, strictly speaking, require "strong AI". It would be ridiculously hard to build and ridiculously expensive though, if built using today's technologies.
"Someone in a suit, for instance, would more likely be a visitor and not a potential shuttle rider."
So take your coat off if you want to penetrate the campus more easily...
Richard Steven Hack - This sig is TOO GODDAMN SHORT TO DO ANYTHING USEFUL WITH! MORONS!
So would Mario be sent straight to the blocked toilets?
Way to read a frickin' book.
in girum imus nocte et consumimur igni