Bendable display screens that fit in a backpack and computers that anticipate the information you need are among innovations likely available to the public as soon as three years from now, Microsoft’s chief research and strategy officer Craig Mundie said on a visit to campus.
In a “Shaping the Future with Technology” presentation Oct. 8 at a packed Stamps Auditorium on North Campus, Mundie said it’s too soon for these innovations to be part of a new Microsoft product debuting next year — the company’s first line of software strictly for education.
“The idea is to show people a glimpse of the future using prototypes of things we think will happen,” Mundie said.
Mundie also met with groups of students, faculty and administrators during his daylong campus visit.
Some of the innovations he talked about include an ability to link several computer products placed on a touch-screen table top “surface computer” and software that shows 3-D images, particularly advantageous in medicine when circulatory, nerve and muscle systems can be displayed.
To boost learning, Mundie projected the same technologies will be coupled with social networking and instant messaging. “Students can help each other through study groups that can be virtualized to some degree,” he said. “One implication is that the process of teaching will require that the faculty themselves will move more into this connected communicating environment. Hopefully we’ll be able to provide more tools to make it easier for people.”
After Bill Gates stepped down earlier this year to focus on philanthropy, the Microsoft chief’s tradition of touring college campuses to show off new products was taken over by Mundie, one of two executives succeeding Gates.
Mundie’s appearance on campus marked the midway point on this college tour, which started at Princeton University and is scheduled to continue at the University of California in Berkeley and San Diego.
Future computer innovation coupled with increased efforts to get technology into the hands of the world’s lower-income populace could improve life conditions, he said.
A Microsoft effort in India to get basic computer technology to some rural populations resulted in a 30-percent increase in crop yields, he said, because the equipment could provide education on effective farming practices.
“You ratchet that family up 30 percent and suddenly they have disposable income,” said Mundie, adding most of those families will choose to spend on education for their children.
In an interview session before the Stamps Auditorium presentation, Mundie discussed the new Microsoft television ad campaign “I’m a PC,” which answers an Apple ad campaign that portrays Microsoft as faltering and out of touch.
“Ultimately we felt we did have to speak about that, not specifically to Apple but in recognition that we didn’t want Microsoft and its huge array of customers to continue to feel like they were being demeaned.”
While interacting with students on the current tour, Mundie said he hasn’t received one question about the economy or the election.
“I think in part it’s because my purpose here is to talk about things that are three to 25 years in the future,” he said. “Somebody has to stay focused on what the future problems are going to be and how we’re going to solve them.”
The economic crisis hasn’t stopped Microsoft from looking ahead, Mundie said.
“In my position you have to be an optimist or you can’t survive,” he said. “It’s hard to know how deep this economic malaise will go … but I don’t think it would represent a material effect on our research agenda. We are continuing full speed with all of our college recruiting around the world.”
