Given our involvement in home automation and smart home technology, we are always interested in what the big boys are up to.
I’ll be the first to admit I’m not a huge fan of Microsoft – they are a large cumbersome organisation and many of their products lack real innovation. However I do like the potential of Kinect – it really is an innovative way of interacting with technology. This clip illustrates that nicely (skip the first bit about touch screens, yawn):-
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-21632855
There is only so much you can do with touch screens and conventional user interfaces, and Kinect really breaks those boundaries, allowing interaction far more akin to that which we have with the real world. And that, in my opinion, has to be the holy grail. Human behaviour has evolved over many thousands of years, and yet is suddenly expected to adapt to new technologies. If you have ever watched your Gran trying to use a computer, you’ll know what I mean. So this may be the future.
Now where’s my crystal ball…