While most of the headlines about Microsoft this fall will concern its new operating system, Windows 8, and its new Surface tablet, the company is also working hard on a long-term effort to reinvent the way we interact with existing computers. The company wants to make it as common to wave your arms at or speak to a computer as it is to reach for a mouse or touch screen today.
That's the goal of a program called Kinect for Windows, which aims to put the wildly successful gaming accessory Kinect wherever Microsoft's ubiquitous operating system is found. It's also designed to allow computers to be used in new ways—for example, by surgeons who don't want to touch a keyboard with sterilized hands midway through surgery.
"We're trying to encourage [software] developers to create a whole new class of app controlled by gesture and voice," says Peter Zatloukal, head of engineering for the Kinect for Windows program.
They have to do something to reinvigorate their dwindling market share. To read more, click here.