At the end of the Intelligent Environments 2008 conference we were treated to a visit to Microsoft Home. The people who work at this facility attempt to see 10 years into the future in order to predict the technological landscape Microsoft will have to compete in. Our host was David Baumert, Program Manager (see picture below).

So what does the future hold? I’ll talk about three technologies that David discussed: organic LEDs, RFIDs and communications.

Organic LEDs should allow us to embed displays into walls and create unobtrusive touch panels to be used in environmental controls, doorbells and such. OLEDs will be cheap, foldable and we’ll be able to paint over them to make them truly blend in with the environment. In fact, they (or similar display technologies) will allow us to transform entire walls or rooms into displays controlled by the current occupant.

RFIDs will be everywhere. OK, you don’t need to be part of Microsoft Home to know this, working at Walmart would teach you the same. However, it’s interesting to think about how these RFIDs can be used by your home to make your life easier. Some examples: RFIDs in food packaging can be used to recognize if you’re about to use the correct ingredients in a recipe (your home is displaying the recipe on the kitchen countertop); RFIDs in prescription medication containers by your home in the process of verifying that you’re taking the correct medication, at the correct time and correct amount; and the RFID in a knick-knack you purchased in Paris can tell your home the date and location of the purchase and this can be one factor in your home’s decision to recommend a Paris-based movie for your viewing pleasure on the anniversary of the purchase.

The third technology I wanted to mention is in fact the collection of technologies that make up the wireless communications experience. The folks at Microsoft Home expect that your mobile phone will be very much present 10 years from today, and that it’ll be much more powerful than it is today. It’ll be the key to your home, the intelligent gateway to your sought-after attention (spam will still be with us), and it will be a powerful remote control.

The visit was certainly a lot of fun. David Baumert knows the predictions of MS Home will not always be correct. E.g. he readily admits that the lack of small home robots (like the ones made by iRobot) in the current depiction of the future is a mistake. Nevertheless, seeing a group of smart people thinking about our collective technological future inspires one to try to do the same, as well as to work hard at shaping that future. For me, that was the most exciting thing to take away from this visit.

Thanks to IE ‘08 organizers for facilitating the visit, thanks to Microsoft for hosting us, and a special thanks to David for the excellent tour.

Andrew Kun

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