Lab man: Microsoft's Phil Fawcett

28.12.2009

I never thought that we'd have sensors to determine what you're feeling and adjust the interface accordingly. I never though we'd be able to handle as much data as we can now. And I never thought that we'd be able to use our hands and more natural interfaces to be able to interact with devices. Admittedly, we still haven't got to the point where we have the singularity, where computers can think as much or as fast as human beings, but it was a bit of a different world. And also a separate world -- data processing was a separate world from our day to day lives. Now technology has been integrated and I hadn't anticipated that. Then there are the effects like the ability to respond to somebody worldwide and all those kinds of things. We had an inkling about that, but never thought those systems could come together.

Typically, research money is best in something that has potential, but needs a little extra push to move it forward. The problem is in many cases you have to ask yourself -- have you ever scheduled a breakthrough?

I have to ask that question because people have a sense that if you just throw the money into research something will come out and you'll see the benefits right away. Well, it's a long term investment and it's usually put in places where you don't necessarily know the outcomes, but you'd like to see that field move forward.