No. 1 Story
ACCC clears Optus to scrap HFC network and use NBN instead
The ACCC has cleared, provisionally, the proposed deal between Optus and NBN Co under which Optus is to be paid around $800m to shut down its HFC network and transfer customers onto the NBN. read moreMS Tech Ed 2009 - Windows 7, 8, 9 and the future
Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Thursday, 10 September 2009 22:50
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Another interesting and unexpected development is in the area of computer science and medicine, which we briefly touched on before. Here, Microsoft’s David Huckerman has “taken the attributes of a spam filter and applied that to how HIV mutates and works” with the goal of “looking at a way to create a [future] customised vaccine for each person”. There’s also work being done on software networking radios, gigabit wireless, white spaces networking (which uses existing analog TV spectrum, a wireless frequency that easily goes through walls), indoor GPS for in-building navigation, and augmented reality (something also seen in that 2019 video!).
And, while Microsoft has already previously announced work on robotics, Fawcett has some of his 850 R&D people working on a personal flying robot, something already in existence as a prototype in China, which will be a personal companion, able to record parts of your life you want recorded, able to project images onto a wall and even use multi-touch Surface PC elements on those projected images.
Work on a “universal translator” able to instantly translate between English and Spanish as two people converse on their mobile phones has also been done, with a laptop PC in the middle doing the translating.
While the system worked in the lab, it also crashed the PC after a while, so while much more work is yet to be done, instant and accurate universal translation, along with natural sounding computer voice pronunciation means that the elimination of the language barrier is something we’ll all one day enjoy just as we’ve seen in sci-fi stories.
There’ll be more to report on all of this once the “locknote” with Phil Fawcett occurs in a few hours time, with an article on other Tech Ed interviews I conducted to come. See you then!
Disclosure: Alex Zaharov-Reutt is attending Microsoft Tech Ed 2009 as a guest of Microsoft.
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