Over the years, Microsoft has created immersive showcases that show how future technologies could shape our world – first through the Microsoft Home, which opened its doors in 1994, and later through facilities like the Envisioning Lab, which explored possibilities for the workplace of the future. During my role as an Strategy Consultant and Solution Sales at Microsoft Netherlands I have worked on "de praktijk", a small center that provided customers with an real world experience on technology.
This "de praktijk" evolved in the CIE (Customers Immersion Experience), recently version 4 was announced. My first visit to the Microsoft Home and the Envisioning Center was with a Dutch Customer RDW , for me it was the start of using scenario's, personas and a way to illustrate the possibilities of technology in a real world scenario.
Close enough in time to be believed and far away enough in time to be innovative.
You may recall Microsoft's previous version of the future as described in its 2009 video forecasting 2019.
The Center highlights Microsoft’s vision of the future of computing — not for generations to come, but in the next five to 10 years. That future, of course, involves a lot of Microsoft products, especially its new Surface tablets.
Microsoft showed off a world where the physical and digital converge seamlessly. You’ll be able to interact with digital screens on your walls, and push information from your Surface tablet or Windows smartphone to those walls. When you’re home, you’ll be able to push photos to all of the devices in your house — say, for example, digital photo frames you have hanging on the walls or sitting on shelves. Microsoft Envisions a Surface-Filled
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Steve Clayton recently posted the his thoughts on the enisioning Center.
his work continues at our new Envisioning Center, which is all about imagining how technology could be used to make life easier and more enjoyable, sometimes in small ways and sometimes in revolutionary ones.
The Envisioning Center is located here on our Redmond campus and it's been rebuilt from the ground up to incorporate our newest ideas and latest technologies. Today we announced its opening.
The facility encompasses scenarios at home, at work and places in between, and is inspired by our product teams, Microsoft Research and by the trends across the industry. I like to think of it as a concept car that allows us to share what it might be like to experience future technologies with visitors, get their feedback, tweak, remix and discuss. It’s all part of advancing the trends we think have the greatest potential.
As part of today’s opening, we put together a short video that gives a sense of what’s inside – and while none of these ideas are meant to be predictive about our products, they do highlight some of the key trends we’re investing in, such as machine learning and NUI. They also give you a sense of where these technologies could lead us over the next five to ten years.
Over the course of the next few days you’ll learn more about some of the work we’re doing to improve our understanding of how people interact with technology and some of the breakthroughs we’ve made. In the meantime, sit back and get a glimpse of our vision for the future.
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Microsoft's current mantra, "Live, Work, Play," feeds directly into the displays at the Envisioning Center, with different sections allowing a glimpse into a model home and a model office.
In the home, a large, long 4k screen with a camera dominates the living room space, elaborating on Microsoft's vision for entertainment, video telecom, and gaming.
The kitchen of the house boasts a Kinect-enabled, wall-mounted display that integrates with the smart stove-top to offer cooking advice. The office spaces bring back Microsoft's original vision for Surface, i.e. gigantic touch screens.
Jonathan
Cluts, director of Microsoft's Strategic Prototyping team: "these scenarios are based on reality, not science fiction."
Don't Blink
