Microsoft teases “smart personal objects” initiative

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Nov. 18, 2002

Las Vegas -- Microsoft used Comdex to provide a peek at its new effort to extend the reach of its embedded-device software technologies to alarm clocks and refrigerators. Called the smart personal objects initiative (SPOT), it's "aimed at improving the function of everyday objects through the injection of software," according to a statement.

The project has been helmed thus far by Microsoft's research labs. To take it to market, Microsoft has enlisted National Semiconductor to make a low-power chip set for the hardware-side implementation of SPOT. Not yet clear to embedded developers are the software requirements and specifications they will have to adhere to create SPOT-capable designs.

In his keynote speech, here, Bill Gates managed to move the audiences' understanding of SPOT at least a little beyond the software-speak that’s sometimes offered up as a fuzzy definition of an emerging technology.

Specifically, Gates demonstrated what he believes SPOT means in terms of additional functionality by showing off several device prototypes. One was a bedside clock with a touch-sensitive screen that updates its time and its alarm settings as it moves between time zones and also provides up-to-date weather, traffic, and other useful information.

Other items were a key chain and wristwatch, which he said could provide real-time news, personal messages or financial information. Gates also mentioned an intelligent refrigerator magnet that could display sports updates or family calendar information.

While the SPOT initiative is new, it's by no means the first time Microsoft has delved into smart objects. Indeed, they've been an ongoing area of study for several years. For example, a 1999 Microsoft white paper noted that embedded microprocessors "are finding their way into everyday items such as refrigerators, ovens, cars, and even credit cards. We think of these slightly more intelligent and connected devices as smart objects. Microsoft has a number of smart-object initiatives...some future product lines from our partners will enable consumers to tie entertainment and home-control devices into a home network."

--Alexander Wolfe, WindowsForDevices.com

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