The Blog

Two schoolgirls from distant countries communicate using a clear white board that can do on-the-fly translation. A business man finds his way out of the airport to meet with his client, by following the big arrow displayed on the ground by his mobile built-in GPS. Working partners meet in a café and resume the project they’re working on, from the very surface of the table. Sounds familiar to you?

If so, this means that you’ve probably already went through this video unveiled by Stephen Elop, president of Microsoft’s business division, as part of his talk at Wharton Business School on Friday. The video, known simply as 2019, provides a sneak peek at the future according to Microsoft, showcasing what would ideally look like the classroom, workplace or home of 2020.

The widespread use of surface and touchscreen devices coupled with ubiquitous wireless connectivity provides a future worthy of any science fiction novel. According to Stephen Elop, most of those technologies demonstrated in the video clip, such as the Surface and e-paper, are just an amplification of technologies which exist today in Microsoft Research labs.

One of the concepts that Microsoft is big on is the idea that people will be able to have all their information with them and be able to work from any computer display, anywhere. And, since they expect nearly every flat surface to be a display some day, that means working just about anywhere (like from a bar as featured in the video). Then, a simple personal identification device could (finally) replace your wallet, turning tables, floors and walls into interactive workable spaces. And from here, sky’s the limit…

So could this mosaic below somehow be a decent representation of what our typical mobile working day of 2020 will look like? As usual, only the future will tell!