Microsoft Sets Its Sights on Artificial Intelligence

[tarheel_hax0r]

There are so many different forums at NI that I could post this to, but the LabVIEW forum gets about as much traffic as any other:

Microsoft Sets Its Sights on Artificial Intelligence

James Niccolai, IDG News Service

Tue June 20, 2006, 8:00 AM ET

Microsoft released the preview version of a software toolkit for building robot applications today, pledging to ignite the robot market in the same way it did the PC market some 20 years ago.

The software maker sees robotics as being on the verge of a rapid take-off, fuelled by the availability of cheap, high-performance hardware components. But the market is being held back by a need for better tools and a common software platform that will let applications be reused on different types of robots, according to Microsoft.

Enter its Robotics Studio, a package of tools and runtime software that the company will demonstrate Tuesday at the RoboBusiness conference in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. A technical preview of the software is available now for free download. It is aimed at all types of robot builders, from commercial users to academics and hobbyists.

The company will also announce that it is funding a new robotics center at Carnegie Melon University, due to open late this year. It didn't disclose the size of its investment...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/pcworld/20060620/tc_pcworld/126177&printer=1

[Ray.R]

Not to put down MSuff, but they can't even write a decent OS, how do they expect to get into robotics?? or AI??

Yikes!!  It's like "Terminator" movie...

===  shaking my head ===

PS:  Do not rate this reply...

=== shaking my head ===

[Will.D]

This goes back to my mentioning gaming...

If you've ever picked up an Xbox 360, and played around with it (online and off), you'll notice that M$ managed to get something very, very right.

Now, the Xbox division is completely separate from everything else, but if they were to take the same approach with their Robotics division, you never know.

Granted, Xbox software (not the actual games) is drastically different than a development environment, but it goes to show there's a possibility anyways!

[tarheel_hax0r]

---

@Novatron wrote:

If you've ever picked up an Xbox 360, and played around with it (online and off), you'll notice that M$ managed to get something very, very right.

Now, the Xbox division is completely separate from everything else, but if they were to take the same approach with their Robotics division, you never know.

---

What does the XBox OS use for a kernel? WinCE?

Anyway, National Instruments has made a huge push into [or onto] what you might call "the assembly line floor".

So I guess if MSFT is also interested in this market, then there must be a heckuva lotta money to be made at it [since, to the best of my knowledge, MSFT ain't known for throwing the big $$$'s at cottage industries].

[Ray.R]

I haven't picked up an Xbox 360.  Was it the one which overheated when first released?

If it is a good box, then it might be something interesting..   It would be nice if MS would do something right, like Win-2K.  I liked it.  Still do.

Who knows.... maybe if they open up a new division with serious people (okay, that leaves me out) , then maybe.... it won't be like Terminator...  I'll have to watch Sci-Fi to find a new comparison..

[Will.D]

When I got home from work today I saw on my screen something I'd been looking at before I left for work, but had little chance to read.

Is this in any way related to the Microsoft thing? Link. If not, it's interesting reading nonetheless. At least for those who can pry themselves from the G world and into the C world...

As for the 360 Kernel, I don't rightly know. According to Windows For Devices, it's a "second-order derivative of Windows 2000 that has been ported to the custom triple-core IBM PowerPC processor."

To answer JLV's question, yes it was the one where the power supply kept overheating. It has since been resolved (read: there are ways to get around it), by keeping all sides as free to air as possible. Considering what is under the hood of one of those things I'm not surprised. To give you an idea, if you weren't curious enough from the quote up there, it runs 3 3.2GHz PowerPC processors, yep, three. It puts my brand new laptop to shame, and for 1/6th of the price! Yikes.

[tarheel_hax0r]

---

Novatron wrote: Is this in any way related to the Microsoft thing?

---

I dunno, but SlashDot picked up the story:

http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/06/20/1953256

[tarheel_hax0r]

Whoa - it looks like it's a free download:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=66d1363e-36a4-46be-ad36-01bcfbfb4969

Wonder if you could get it to interface with Measurement Studio?

[tbob]

One thing for sure, Microsoft's intelligence is artificial.  The only way they get anything right is to hire a bunch of wizz kids to program a special product.  Excel is very nicely done, and I heard they hired a bunch of UNIX programmers to write Excel.  That's why it works well and has lots of good features.  Maybe thats what they did with Xbox.

[Ray.R]

LOL... tbob..