If this e-mail program were used in an enterprise, it could pull in information from Sharepoint, such as a sender’s IM status and position in the organization.

Researchers showed off a variety of other new technologies as well, including one that loads hundreds of books on DVDs, aimed at serving as an educational tool in emerging markets. A more sophisticated thesaurus program would do a better job suggesting alternate phrases for writers. An image-centric ad platform would let companies buy advertisements based on the content in photographs taken by people.

One of the more unusual projects lets a user write letters in the air, and a computer, equipped with a standard Web cam, recognizes the letters. It doesn't require a special handheld device; the program will recognize anything with color in a user's hand. Researcher Lei Ma used an apple to trace letters in the air. The application could be useful with interactive TV applications, particularly in Asian countries where languages sometimes have thousands of characters, making on-screen keyboards less useful to people, he said.