Microsoft's Chief Research And Strategy Officer On A New Era In Computing

Craig Mundie visited a number of universities in the USA and Canada last week, engaging with the straightway generation of computer scientists, engineers, entrepreneurs, doctors, and educators to discuss what the future of research holds, and how it will play a critical role in these and other fields.

Another area that I've touched on previously is the visualization of big data-a field that I personally believe is set to explode. While Craig's talks, he showed how the Visual Experience Engine can be used to provide rich visualization of big data-in such a case showing precipitation data in the US over a 30-year period. You simply couldn't see this kind of detail, or maybe notice that Seattle is not as rainy as the mountains that surround it, by looking at numbers alone.

Craig discussed several aspects of NUI, using some of the advances in Windows Phone 7.5 and the recently released Kinect SDK for Windows for instance some of the advances here. I've spoken a lot about NUI on this blog, so will skip to the final theme that Craig explored: the coming at the same time of digital and physical worlds. Maybe unsurprisingly, Kinect is playing a role here too. He as well demonstrated KinectFusion, a Microsoft Technology project, which uses a Kinect camera to create a real-time 3D model of an object, a person or even a whole room.

The blurring of physical

Avatar Kinect is another example of the blurring of physical and digital worlds, a research that enables people to meet at the same time in the same virtual space, represented by avatars that mimic the facial expressions and movements they are making in the real world.

One thing is for sure: whenever Craig talks, it's always worth listening. He offers an exciting glimpse of the future that helps join the dots across the biggest trends in research, inside and outside Microsoft.

PSFK's latest report finds that evolving data-rich technologies and social media are providing organizations, communities and business with a rapid way to monitor the so then-being of communities and individuals without significant infrastructure or spend."