Microsoft pitching futuristic ideas for workplace

EATTLE -- Having a window seat won't be as important in the office of the future Microsoft envisions.

Workers will spend their day facing a bank of flat-panel computer screens, or perhaps a wraparound monitor large enough to run a handful of software programs at once.

The futuristic work stations are on display in the Center for Information Work, an interactive exhibit that opened last month at Microsoft's Redmond, Wash., campus.

More than $1 million was spent on the Disneyesque showcase of Microsoft's research into office technology of the future.

The company expects to bring more than 1,000 executives and technology buyers a month through the 2,400-square-foot center.

The center was the brainchild of Jeff Raikes, the executive in charge of business-productivity software. He came up with the idea after visiting the Microsoft Home, an exhibit of future home technologies in the company's on-campus conference center.

Raikes said the center serves the dual purpose of showing customers where Microsoft is headed and getting early feedback on those ideas.

Visitors so far include technology managers from Home Depot, Paccar and BP.

"It was pretty impressive, I thought. It was something I was looking for," said Curt Smith, BP's applications director in Chicago. His company uses about 75,000 Microsoft-based computers.

Looking for uses

Smith said it was helpful to get hands-on demonstrations of technology such as the Tablet PC, large displays and mobile devices.

"We get bombarded by 'Here's the new applications' or 'Here's the new technology, cell phone or mobile device blah blah blah,'" he said. "But 'What are you supposed to do with this?' is the question I've been asking people."

Raikes may build additional centers at other Microsoft facilities and perhaps a mobile version.

Public tours are not offered, but Raikes would like to build a similar exhibit at the Pacific Science Center in Seattle, an idea he suggested last year to director George Moynihan.

"I love the concept of a truly interactive office of the future," Moynihan said.

There are no formal plans yet for a science center version, but it could take about a year to develop if pursued, he said.

Microsoft's center also gives visitors a chance to participate in the carefully scripted product demonstrations Chairman Bill Gates performs at large trade shows.

Visitors are asked to pretend they work for a widget company. They are assigned an entry card that is triggered by their thumbprint.

Passing through dark hallways dotted with flat-screen monitors provided by Sony, visitors see a video e-mail from a supervisor urging them to prepare for the chief executive's upcoming TV interview.

Next, visitors sit at desks with an array of monitors where they conduct "business" and receive messages.

The monitors can display large spreadsheets all at once or be configured so that work is done at the center while messages pop up on one side and folders are arranged on the other.

A conference room demonstrates the "RingCam" developed by Microsoft Research to capture both panoramic and close-up views of meetings for live broadcasting, or recording and editing.

Displayed as the extension of the office are the dashboard of a Toyota sedan with a prototype display to receive digital messages, and a "family room" complete with a couch and big TV, where visitors pretending to be home with a sick child can watch a Webcast of a business conference.