Your home PC has the chance to become one of the most powerful
ground-based telescopes in the world. Microsoft revealed that
World-Wide Telescope will enable users to access technology
that will enable them to explore distant stars, galaxies and
quasars via millions of images from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. A map
of a large portion of the universe will be a few clicks away.
“What we’ve done is give people the ability to become digital
astronauts,” said Microsoft Research Senior Vice President Rick Rashid.
“You can explore deep space from the comfort of your living room. These
will be tantamount to guided tours of the universe. People will have an
immersion way to search, explore and discover the universe much like
MSN Virtual Earth.”
This is just an example of the innovations from Microsoft Research. In
fact, the Redmond Company will unveil in excess of 100 innovations
outlining the future of computing at the Microsoft Research TechFest
2007. TechFest is Microsoft's annual showcasing of research projects.
“TechFest is one-stop shopping to see and experience the breadth of
software innovations we’re pursuing that will allow people to explore
their interests more deeply and share the things they care about more
easily,” added Rashid.
Out of the large volume of key research projects, Microsoft highlighted
the World-Wide Telescope; Mix: Search-Based Authoring, and Boku.
Microsoft combined the magic of software programming with the Xbox
console in Boku, a virtual robot in a simulated world. “There is an
ongoing and deepening crisis in computer science,” Rashid added. “Our
goal is to stem the tide by showing young kids the magic of software
programming.”
