After desktop computing: a progress report on smart environments research

Microsoft Research, founded in 1991, is now one of the leading computer research groups worldwide. MSR's charter is to invent ways to make computers more capable and easy to use. What is next for Microsoft? Bill Gates has a host of irons in his research fire (http://research.microsoft.com/research). Among them, the EasyLiving group (www.research.microsoft.com/easyliving) is working to propel computing off the desktop and into the realm of the intelligent Star Trek computer. The vision of intelligent environments is a world of technology that seamlessly and unobtrusively surrounds you with intelligent help. It interconnects and controls various appliances and services from TV and the Web, to toasters and bathtubs, reconfiguring them on the fly as you move around, responding as your needs and desires change. The paper discusses the EasyLiving project.