In Microsoft's Vision of the Future Everything Is a Computer

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Microsoft released a new video detailing its vision of the future which doesn't exactly include flying saucers and droids, but it does feel futuristic and tech-y. This isn't the first time Microsoft has detailed its idea of what the world will look like in x years. The tech company released a similar psychic vision in 2009 and has various futuristic projects in the works, like its Photosmyth project, which promises to make photo sharing way cool. If Microsoft has anything to do with it, what exactly will our lives look like? 

Everything will be a computer. From books, to kitchen tables, to ads, to taxi cabs, every single object will be connected. Take this taxi cab, for example, as the woman drives to her hotel, the car highlights important buildings for her.

Or, imagine a kitchen table computer.

And then there's this book computer.

Not only does almost every object have computer capabilities, but everything is connected, like, on some big cloud-y server. It's like everyone's living in one giant computer bubble.

Touch screen redux. Tapping and swiping isn't exactly going away, but it will be way cooler. First of all, introducing: hover touch.

The phone sucks in the heart, it's pretty rad. From the other video, Microsoft also introduces the possibility of touch screen animations.

3D will catch on. In our lame contemporary, 3D is kitsch and niche. In the future, computers and phones will have 3D capabilities and we're going to like it.

Computers, phones, that kitchen table computer: It all pops out right at you. And, its manipulable. That's maybe cooler than Step Up 3D. 

Language will be a non-issue. Our computerized objects will translate things for us. Stuck in a foreign country where you don't speak the language? No problem. Just pop on these computer glasses:

And in Microsoft land, these translating miracle devices will not only aid helpless travelers, but could even bridge cultural riffs between countries, bringing two totally different children together. 

And then these other cool things will exist, too. Harry Potter-esque moving picture ads, sliver-thin phones that are all screen and nothing else; and computers that do calculus. Microsoft world sounds easy.  

This article is from the archive of our partner The Wire.