Microsoft is under intense pressure to come up with a formidable alternative to ward off stiff competition from Android and iOS4. The company researchers are currently working on a project codenamed as "Menlo". And now a few details have emerged about the project.
According to a recently published paper "User Experiences with Activity-based Navigation on Mobile Devices", Menlo is a prototype mobile device featuring a 4.1", 800×480 capacitive touch screen. The prototype runs on Microsoft Windows Embedded CE 6.0 R2.
However, this prototype gets a major boost up from a new Silverlight application called "Greenfield", which is a sensor based GPS app. This application uses human motions data to let the user retrace their previous movements. Among other speculations about this app is the rumor that it will be a more evolved GPS system allowing for better navigations involving structures such as stairs etc.
If these rumors are true than we can rest assured that Microsoft is going strong with Natural User Interface or NUI technology. NUI technology uses human movements including voice and touch as data. The company has recently launched its speech recognition application. Microsoft has also used this technology for its Xbox Kinect.
It is yet to be seen whether this new technology becomes mainstream or become yet another prototype which never gets to see the light of day.
Source: ZDNet