Sunday, September 26, 2004
Hey PC guys - Microsoft is getting into robotics
Those who jump at every battle in the Windows/Unix wars should raise their pointed ears to see how Microsoft is trying - desperately, some would say - to enter robotics. Microsoft appeared at the Spring 2004 conference hosted by Robotics Trends, and it is a cinch that they will be at the upcoming Robonexus conference as well. Microsoft has also noticed that kids are learning how to build and program robots in elementary and secondary schools throughout the world. A recent press release announces their intent to enter this market:
"...Visual Robot Development Kit
Researchers from the Berlin University of Technology and Microsoft Research Cambridge demonstrated the Visual Robot Development Kit (VRDK), a graphical programming language that is claimed to make the development of robotic applications easy enough to teach in school. VRDK, which features a simple graphical editor that can be used with a mouse and keyboard or Tablet PC, is expected to inspire future engineers by enabling them to program "toy" robots to perform simple tasks, and then control the robots using a PC or Windows Mobile-based Smartphone..."
The Microsoft VRDK will join comparable authoring environments like that developed by Cyberbotics which move creating robotic behavior away from programming to visual authoring. As these authoring environments become more popular, more and more Millennnial generation kids (born 1982-2003) will be programming robots in school - and will be looking for robot-based careers when they hit college. In fact, we can align generations and technology in the following way:
1980s - Personal computers - Generation X, 2nd-wave Baby Boomers ("Jonesers")
199os - Internet/web and console games - 2nd-wave Gen-X ("Gen-Y")
2000s - Robots - Millennials
The Millennials are a bigger generation than the Xers, and apparently Microsoft is finally waking up to the fact that for them, PCs are air - they don't see them as cutting-edge or glamorous technology. They will be about as interested in PCs when they are in college circa 2010 as we are in careeers in the power company - after all, electricity was once the hottest tech around in the 1920s, and a power company startup was the equivalent of a "dotcom" in the 1920s.
Even if you are an Xer or Boomer who sees the PC future as forever, the fact that Microsoft is creating robotic software - and making it for kids to practice - should give you pause. This follows a belated move by the Linux community realizing that the future of Red Hat software isn't a hot topic, but Unix-driven robots (using real time OS systems like Wind River) are. The robots are rising, my friend.
Those who jump at every battle in the Windows/Unix wars should raise their pointed ears to see how Microsoft is trying - desperately, some would say - to enter robotics. Microsoft appeared at the Spring 2004 conference hosted by Robotics Trends, and it is a cinch that they will be at the upcoming Robonexus conference as well. Microsoft has also noticed that kids are learning how to build and program robots in elementary and secondary schools throughout the world. A recent press release announces their intent to enter this market:
"...Visual Robot Development Kit
Researchers from the Berlin University of Technology and Microsoft Research Cambridge demonstrated the Visual Robot Development Kit (VRDK), a graphical programming language that is claimed to make the development of robotic applications easy enough to teach in school. VRDK, which features a simple graphical editor that can be used with a mouse and keyboard or Tablet PC, is expected to inspire future engineers by enabling them to program "toy" robots to perform simple tasks, and then control the robots using a PC or Windows Mobile-based Smartphone..."
The Microsoft VRDK will join comparable authoring environments like that developed by Cyberbotics which move creating robotic behavior away from programming to visual authoring. As these authoring environments become more popular, more and more Millennnial generation kids (born 1982-2003) will be programming robots in school - and will be looking for robot-based careers when they hit college. In fact, we can align generations and technology in the following way:
1980s - Personal computers - Generation X, 2nd-wave Baby Boomers ("Jonesers")
199os - Internet/web and console games - 2nd-wave Gen-X ("Gen-Y")
2000s - Robots - Millennials
The Millennials are a bigger generation than the Xers, and apparently Microsoft is finally waking up to the fact that for them, PCs are air - they don't see them as cutting-edge or glamorous technology. They will be about as interested in PCs when they are in college circa 2010 as we are in careeers in the power company - after all, electricity was once the hottest tech around in the 1920s, and a power company startup was the equivalent of a "dotcom" in the 1920s.
Even if you are an Xer or Boomer who sees the PC future as forever, the fact that Microsoft is creating robotic software - and making it for kids to practice - should give you pause. This follows a belated move by the Linux community realizing that the future of Red Hat software isn't a hot topic, but Unix-driven robots (using real time OS systems like Wind River) are. The robots are rising, my friend.
