"On a mobile device, you don't have a real keyboard," said Bo Thiesson, research software design engineer at Microsoft Research. A prototype of Wild Thing has been done for MSN, and Microsoft is in talks to have Virtual Earth use the technology as well.

-- Pinpoint, providing location services for friends and family. This technology would use cell phones to determine the people's locations; enabling parents to determine when a child has left school, for instance. It is in the research phase.

SenseWeb, for "browsing the physical world in real time." With this project, real-time information, such as finding out which restaurants only have a 10-minute waiting period for a table, would be readily accessible. Restaurants participating would need to be wired up with a small box equipped with a video camera.

Due to be released as a prototype in two months, the project would entail development of tools to publish data, as well as technologies to write applications and make useful queries.

-- Social Network and Relationship Finder (SNARF). This project involves prioritizing e-mail based on the importance of the sender to the recipient. Persons responding to e-mail, for example, could be given top billing.