Microsoft certified pilot

Microsoft certified pilot-Bust stress, conquer sky,the virtual way

Vaibhava Srinivasan, 33, was flying a Boeing 737 aircraft over the picturesque Himalayan mountain range on his way to China, when he had to suddenly cut short his sortie for an urgent board meeting at office.

No, he wasn't daydreaming.

On weekdays, the Bangalorean works as a chartered accountant with PricewaterhouseCoopers, but on weekends, he brings out the aviator in him and 'flies' all kinds of jetliners all over the world with the help of a software -- Microsoft Flight Simulator. The software, priced at $40 (Rs.1,700), commands the lion's share in the virtual flying software market.

"This software is for enthusiasts and has been constantly upgraded over the years. It provides you a virtual experience of flying a jet and is easily available at any electronic gadget or video game shop," Srinivasan told IANS over phone.

Srinivasan, in fact, went one step further by installing a Boeing 737 cockpit at his home with hardware and software procured from various countries over a period of two years. The cockpit boasts of an imitation panel, yoke, throttle quadrant, multi-functional displays, auto-pilot and auto throttle panels and original captain seats.

"After slugging the whole week I need an effective stress-buster on weekends to relax and the simulator is just the perfect solution. In fact, many of my friends often visit my place just to lay their hands on it," he quipped.

Srinivasan may be an extreme case, but budding aviators can also consider software like X-Plane, which costs around $25-40, depending on the features one opts for.

Siddharth Chowdhri, who owns The English Book Store in central Delhi's upscale commercial complex Connaught Place, says flight simulator software and hardware like yoke and throttle quadrant are some of the best selling items of his shop.

"Over the years, our clientele has changed. Earlier, most of our customers of such software were students training to become pilots, but now enthusiasts have also started thronging our shop," he told IANS.

"Many of the stuff are directly imported from the UK and US," he added.

Virtual flying enthusiasts also have another option -- the International Virtual Aviation Organisation (IVAO), the biggest non-profit community of virtual flyers and air traffic controllers, based in Belgium.

"IVAO provides a platform for virtual pilots and air traffic controllers from across the globe with real time data on weather and traffic conditions of the destination that you are headed towards," said Srinivasan, who is also IVAO's director of public relations.

After a free registration at IVAO, one can download software for pilots or air traffic controllers and get started immediately.

Agreed Sanket Deshpande, a media professional from Mumbai, who termed the experience as "out of this world."

"Once you start flying, it's difficult to believe that it is just a simulation. The most amazing thing is that you can interact with fellow pilots who are flying with you in the virtual airspace," the 26-year-old told IANS.

Delegated with the responsibility of coordinating operations of air traffic control and new members joining IVAO, Deshpande said 25-30 enthusiasts are joining them every month.

"The age group usually wavers between 16 and 45. We also have retired air force pilots as our members," said Deshpande, who is in the process of building a cockpit at home.

Another online virtual flying network is the US-based Virtual Air Traffic Simulation Network (VATSIM)

"Although both the organisations are equally large, VATSIM has more American users whereas IVEO boasts of more Europeans and Indians," said Srinivasan.

Some also say the flight simulators can be the first step towards a career as a pilot or an air traffic controller.

"The problem in India is that parents think that it is just another video game and discourage their kids from using it, whereas it can very well be a beginning for a kid to shape his career as a pilot," Hyderabad-based Ajit Menon, a sales manager with Dell, told IANS.

"Although it's a rage in the West, it is growing at an equally healthy rate here," added Menon, 40, who claims to have more than 2,000 hours of virtual flying under his belt.

Menon's views were corroborated by 32-year-old Rohit Dalaya, a captain with Air India, who admits that it was his hours spent flying virtually which egged him on to realise his dream of becoming a pilot.

"I started using the flight simulator in my college days way back in 1996. Although I did my training from the US, the simulator played a major role in helping me achieve my goal," said Dalaya, who has been flying with the national carrier for more than 10 years.

Microsoft Opens HTML5 Proving Ground

Web developers will have a chance to explore and tweak emerging yet unstable standards in Microsoft's new HTML5 Labs site. "At this point, HTML5 standards are moving targets," Pund-IT's Charles King stated. "But it's better for developers to get involved early and tweak their offerings along the way than to start late and deliver half-baked offerings."

Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) launched an HTML5 laboratory for developers on Tuesday. The company intends the project to be a site where Redmond prototypes early and unstable Web standard specs from standards bodies such as the W3C and shares them with the developer community.

One reason for establishing the lab could be that Microsoft wants to leverage its strong relationship with developers for the Web.

Microsoft could also be playing catch-up with Google (Nasdaq: GOOG), which launched its HTML5-based Body Browser last week, and with Mozilla's Firefox browser.

About the HTML5 Labs site

The HTML5 Labs site is managed by the Microsoft Interoperability Strategy Group. Currently, it has two prototypes available -- IndexedDB and WebSockets

IndexedDB is a draft Web specification for the storage of large amounts of structured data in the browser. WebSockets simplifies bi-directional, full-duplex communications channels over a single TCP socket.

"WebSockets and IndexDB were chosen because the specifications have great potential to provide benefits to a broad audience, but they are currently unstable," Microsoft spokesperson Anna Imperati told TechNewsWorld.

The WebSocket API (application programming interface) is being standardized by the W3C, and the protocol is being standardized by the IETF, while IndexedDB is a "developing W3C Web standard," Imperati added.

Microsoft set up the lab to separate prototype implementations from mainstream browser product implementations. For example, in IE9, it's only delivering on the key parts of HTML5 that are site-ready.

The New Face of Microsoft

With the HTML5 Labs, Microsoft is apparently changing its approach to testing apps -- instead of throwing betas out to users, it will offer only relatively stable products.

"Microsoft is focusing much more on finishing products before they send them out these days, largely to both address past bad practices and to more sharply differentiate themselves against Google, which aggressively uses first releases as beta tests," Rob Enderle, principal analyst at the Enderle Group, told TechNewsWorld.

"Microsoft recognizes that IE9 is a critical product for the company upon which much of its infrastructure resides," Enderle pointed out.

"They messed IE up once and they intend to never do that again," he added.

Redmond "historically has had a very strong relationship with developers in other areas, and it looks like it's trying to apply some of those practices to the Web development community around HTML5," Ray Valdes, vice president of Web services at Gartner (NYSE: IT), told TechNewsWorld.

"This highlights Microsoft's recognition of how critical a role developers will play in the success of IE9 and other HTML5-related products," Charles King, principal analyst at Pund-IT, told TechNewsWorld. "But one goal here is to ensure that IE9 add-ons and services are robust from the beginning."

Web Standard Specs Are a Gamble

Web standards are hammered out over time by members of the computer industry, and they're not always stable until they've been finally ratified. Sometimes, only parts of a standard are stable. Such is the case with HTML5.

"There are certain subsystems of HTML5 that are more volatile than others," Gartner's Valdes stated. "Some go through a trajectory that looks good but they reach an impasse."

WebSQL is one such specification. It's supported by Safari, Chromium 4 and Opera.

"For the last three years, WebSQL was gong to be the primary mechanism for offline storage, then the committee reached an impasse and work stopped," Valdes remarked.

IndexDB is "the presumed replacement for HTML5," Valdes said. However, it's fairly new, having only emerged over the past couple of months, and browser vendors haven't been able to incorporate it into their products, with the exception of Mozilla, which has implemented it in Firefox 4. It's also scheduled to be supported by Chromium Milestone 9.

"At this point, HTML5 standards are moving targets," Pund-IT's King stated. "But it's better for developers to get involved early and tweak their offerings along the way than to start late and deliver half-baked offerings."

Catching Up to the Competition

Perhaps Microsoft is also trying to make sure IE9 can compete with other browsers on the market.

The Internet Explorer browser, which once had well over 90 percent of the browser market, had only 42.5 percent at the end of November, according to W3Counter's statistics.

Firefox came in a reasonably close second with 32 percent of the market, and Google's quickly growing Chrome came in third with a tad over 13 percent.

"HTML5 isn't prevalent enough to exert a significant commercial impact, but Google's launch last week of its Body Browser caused quite a stir, and gave the company something of a leg up in HTML5 thought leadership," Pund-IT's King remarked. "Though it isn't anywhere near as high profile as the Body Browser, the Microsoft Labs does reflect a similar sort of effort."

Microsoft Files for Patent on Touchy-Feely Screens

A recent Microsoft patent could add a new dimension to touchscreen technology. The concept uses light-induced shape-memory polymers that would allow the screen to actually change its topography with the image, providing the sensation of touching actual buttons. Don't expect to see it on the next Windows Phone, though -- practical uses for such an invention are still years away.

Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) has filed a patent application for a display screen that would dynamically give users the feeling of pushing buttons when they touch it.

It filed patent application 20100295820 last week.

The patent's for a "light-induced shape-memory polymer display screen" that would give users the sensation of actually touching buttons as they're displayed on a touchscreen.

At least one other project that would give users tactile sensations when they put their fingers on a touchscreen is under way elsewhere.

Microsoft Explores Your Feelings

Microsoft's patent describes a device with a display screen that has a topography-changing layer. This layer would consist of a shape-memory polymer activated by light. It would have an imaging engine that would project visible light onto a display screen and a topography-changing engine projecting ultraviolet (UV) light onto the screen.

The UV light would, in essence, command the shape-memory layer to create buttons on the screen as required. This could provide a virtual keyboard users can interact with.

The screen would also have a reference engine that would project infrared (IR) light onto the screen and a touch-detection engine that would detect when the screen was touched. The lights would impact the polymer layer pixel by pixel.

Microsoft's patent proposes using cinnamic acid groups for light detection. The E-isomeric form of cinnamic acid can be converted to the Z-isomer through irradiation with UV light. The technology would apparently be used first in large devices.

"A simple application would be to use this technology to create a true tactile touch keyboard where you could actually feel the keys under your fingers," Carl Howe, director of anywhere consumer research at the Yankee Group, told TechNewsWorld.

Microsoft declined comment on the patent.

Other Efforts With Touchscreen Technology

Disney Research in Pittsburgh, Penn., is also working on a project to provide tactile feedback to touchscreens.

Its TeslaTouch project uses the electrovibration principle to provide tactile feedback to users of a touchscreen. Electrovibration, like mechanical vibration, it is a type of tactile sensation.

A handheld prototype was created in collaboration with Mark Baskinger of the Carnegie-Mellon University School of Design.

The prototype measures 35 by 4 by 40 mm and uses 8 volts of electricity to generate tactile feedback. An electrostatic force attracts the user's fingers to the interactive surface, so the user doesn't receive an electric charge. The input signal is spread uniformly across the touch surface.

TeslaTouch technology can be added to devices ranging from small handheld items to large multitouch collaborative surfaces. However, the user must be grounded for best results. For larger devices, this can be achieved by users wearing antistatic wristbands or sitting or standing on grounded pads. For mobile devices, the back of the device's case serves to ground it when the user holds the device.

Uses of Tactile Feedback

It's difficult right now to predict exactly where this type of tactile technology might be used on a large scale.

"Ideally, this would be for devices with screens which come closer to laptops and smartphones than they do to desktops," Rob Enderle, principal analyst at the Enderle Group, told TechNewsWorld.

"However, initially monitors for existing PCs and other devices are more likely to be easier to use with this technology because the initial cost of the panel will likely limit the market significantly," he added.

The design is part of the problem with the technology.

"The patent puts several constraints on the display and, as of now, I don't see such constrained displays -- ones where have multiple projectors behind them -- having a ton of utility," the Yankee Group's Howe pointed out.

However, there might be niche applications, such as in the command and control center of a battleship, where the tactile feedback would help users remain oriented while the vessel is pitching and yawing, Howe suggested.

However, practical use for the technology might be some ways off.

"It'll likely be seven to 10 years before the technology exists outside the lab in limited runs and over 10 years before it hits the broader market," Enderle opined.

Microsoft sells one million Kinects in 10 days

Microsoft said it sold one million Kinect motion-sensing controllers for the Xbox 360 videogame console in 10 days and is on pace to sell five million by the end of the year.

"This is a great start to the holiday season," said Don Mattrick, president of Microsoft's Interactive Entertainment Business.

"We will continue to work with our retailer partners to keep pace with high demand and deliver against our plan to sell more than five million Kinect sensors worldwide by the end of this year," Mattrick said in a statement.

Microsoft launched the Kinect in North America on November 4 and in Europe last week. It launches in Asia later this week.

Kinect uses a 3D camera and motion recognition software to let people play videogames using natural body movements and voice commands instead of hand-held controllers.

The standalone Kinect, which works with the 45 million Xbox 360s already sold worldwide, costs 150 dollars. A four-gigabyte Xbox 360 console that includes the Kinect and the "Kinect Adventures" game sells for 299 dollars.