Saturday, September 30, 2017

Future Technologies that Microsoft wants to master(Insights from Microsoft Envision)

Microsoft looked beyond the PC and the server to drive success in the cloud.
Microsoft is investing to lead in three key technologies that will shape our industry
and others in the years to come - mixed reality , artificial intelligence , and quantum computing .
These technologies will inevitably lead to massive shifts in our economy and society.





Mixed Reality
With mixed reality Microsoft is building the ultimate computing experience one in which field of view becomes  a computing surface and the digital world  and our physical world become one.
The data , apps , and even the colleagues and friends you think of as being on your phone or tablet are now available anywhere you want to access them - while you are working in your office.
Mixed reality will become an essential tool in medicine, education and manufacturing.

Stay Nadella tried HoloLens device , a small head-mounted computer that is completely self-contained. HoloLens transported him - virtually - of course -  onto the surface of the Red Planet , 250 million miles away, thanks to a feed  from NASA's Mars rover,Curiosity. Through HoloLens , he could see his two street shoes  walking , in the most convincing  and baffling  way, on the dusty Martian near a rocky waypoint called Kimberley along the rover's journey to Murray Buttes. HoloLens made it  possible for him both to walk around the actual room - to see a desk and tot interact with people around him - and to inspect the rocks on Mars's surface. That's that amazing , unprecedented nature oh what we call mixed reality . The experience was so inspiring , so moving , that one member of his leadership  team cried during the virtual excursion.

Stay Nadella saw and experienced the day was a glimpse of Microsoft's future. May be this moment will be remembered as the advent of a mixed reality revolution , one in which everyone works and plays in an immersive environment that blends the really works and a virtual world.


While HoloLens has obvious applications in video gaming , he instantly saw its potential in video gaming, I instantly saw its potential in classrooms , hospitals and yes, space exploration. NASA was , in fact , one the first organizations to see the value of HoleLens, adopting an early version  to enable astronauts  on Earth to collaborate with astronauts in space.




HoloLens as a  platform
5000 Developers submitted data for applications that they wanted to build for HoloLens after it was released.
Lowe's Home improvement stores , for example, are using HoloLens to allow their customers to stand in their own kitchens and bathrooms , and superimpose holograms of new cabinets , appliances and accessories so that they can see exactly what the remodel will look like.



Technologies can increasingly see , speak and analyze but it cannot yet feel.  But mixed reality may help machine empathize with humans. Though these technologies , we will be able increasingly to experience what  a refugee or a crime victim experiences , potentially enhancing our ability to make connections across barriers.
Students from Australia built an MR application that helps certain caregivers  to see the world  through the eyes of someone with autism.


Reference:
Hit Refresh - Satya Nadella