Summary: Imagine an elevator that can figure out what floor you want to go to – that’s exactly what Microsoft Research is working on. Microsoft outfitted a few elevators with a bunch of sensors, which watched what people did for about three months. The system began to learn how the passengers behaved, and started to understand where they wanted to go. After three months, the system stopped watching and began controlling the elevator on the passengers’ behalf. Microsoft programmed these elevators to look for certain triggers – for example, if you’re talking to a co-worker about having lunch tomorrow on the second floor, the elevator will know where to take you, without any further guidance. If you leave your office every day at 11:45 for a quick smoke break, the elevator will know to bring you to the lobby. Microsoft’s elevators are a big step in automation, and a look into a future where we no longer need to operate computers; instead, they’ll be working for us.
