SKIRMISHER

Microsoft is developing software for robots.

I know what you’re thinking: A far shot from the “death rays” of popular science fiction, here’s Microsoft with the “sinister plan” of introducing its Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) in robots of the future. I think there’s a funny joke there somewhere.

Kidding aside, Microsoft’s spanking-new Robotics Group is already making people nervous, what with the company’s reputation in locking others into its own technologies.

But Microsoft reassures the small guys to relax. Comparing today’s robotics to the nascent PC industry of the 1970s, Robotics Manager Tandy Trower says:

“You had a number of small companies [back in the 1970s] all building on their own processor, all with their own set of development tools, and it was mostly open to only the technical elite… That’s really what we’re trying to do with this…we want to make development of robotic applications available to a wider audience.”

MICROSOFT FOSTERS ROBOTICS [SeattlePi]

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