Microsoft

n 2005, Microsoft launched a Location Finder as part of its Live Maps service. The application examined the networks a person was connected to, cross checked his IP address, and then predicted where the person was on a map. It was far from 100 percent accurate, but when it was right, it was ever-so-slightly terrifying. Coupling a person's location with 3D aerial map views, it showed the person a picture of the building he was sitting in with a big "X" on top of it -- giving him the simultaneous sensation of being the CIA agent locating a target, the target expecting an incoming cruise missile, and the viewer of a sophisticated, futuristic spy-movie.

What will human-computer Interaction (HCI) be like in the year 2020? That's the focus of a Microsoft Research report, "Being Human: Human-Computer Interaction in the year 2020," just released.

The federal office in charge of creating a national network of electronic health records plans to integrate the system with the health care databases that Google and Microsoft launched last year, on which individuals can store their health records, a top official with the Health and Human Services Department said.

Take the most complex organ in the human body, superimpose the legacy of biology’s biggest research project, and what have you got? An unprecedented brain map that is set to transform studies of neuroscience and brain disease. The Allen Institute for Brain Science in Seattle, Washington, US, is today launching a four-year, $55-million effort to build a three-dimensional map documenting the levels of activity of some 20,000 different genes across the human brain.

When a Microsoft Corp. patent application for a method of sorting brain waves surfaced late last year, it drew quips that the company now plans to read PC users' minds, in addition to selling them software. But the patent is only a starting point for a broader and more benign investigation into the subconscious, according to Microsoft researcher Desney Tan.

Microsoft Corp. is bringing digital advertising to the grocery cart. The software maker spent four years working with Plano, Texas-based MediaCart Holdings Inc. on a grocery cart-mounted console that helps shoppers find products in the store, then scan and pay for their items without waiting in the checkout line.

t gives a whole new meaning to the word "micromanager." Judging from a recent patent application, Microsoft hopes to build some sort of "activity monitoring system" that keeps an eye on worker productivity using various "physiological or environmental sensors." These sensors would track everything from heart rate, respiration rate, body temperature, facial expressions, and blood pressure to brain signals and galvanic skin response.

ess than two weeks after Microsoft Corp. announced plans to support online personal health information records, Google unveiled plans to follow suit. Marissa Mayer, Google's vice president of search products and user experience, said Wednesday here at the Web 2.0 Summit that Google plans to support the "storage and movement" of people's health records.

Not content with running your computer, Microsoft now wants to read your mind too. The company says that it is hard to properly evaluate the way people interact with computers since questioning them at the time is distracting and asking questions later may not produce reliable answers. "Human beings are often poor reporters of their own actions," the company says.

Who Loves Real ID? AOL, Microsoft and Yahoo Do.: "The federal Real ID Act doesn’t have many friends these days. Eighteen states have passed legislation rejecting the law, Congress has refused to put any money into implementing it, and just this week New York Gov. Elliot Spitzer announced he, not the Feds, would determine New York’s drivers license policy, with officials in his administration indicating the state might opt out of the Real ID program altogether.