Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) has developed a smart elevator with artificial intelligence that can detect if you want to board it, and which floor you need to go to. Researchers have installed a Kinect camera in the ceiling of one of the elevators at Microsoft’s office building. For months, the camera tracked the behavior of people getting on the elevator vs. those who bypassed it on their way. The software giant is already10 using the Kinect technology in Xbox One.
How Microsoft’s smart elevator works
Using that data, the artificial intelligence system trained itself to recognize the behaviors of people who wanted to get on, and open the doors automatically. Eric Horvitz, the co-director of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT)’s research lab, is leading the project. Horvitz has taken the project to the second phase, where the artificial intelligence can initiate a human-like interaction between the elevator and people riding it. Microsoft researcher said that the smart elevator is still unable to predict with 100% accuracy whether someone nearby wants to get on. In case of uncertainty, the elevator doors would juggle back and forth as a sign that it’s unsure whether you want to get on. Then it can identify when you shake your head or wave your hand to say “Yes” or “No.”
Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT)’s technology can also figure out which floor you want to go to based on your history and many other factors. For example, if the smart elevator’s sensors know that it’s lunch time, and you talked to your colleague about having lunch together on the sixth floor, that’s where it’ll send you. If you are leaving the office now to go to the elevator, it will take you to the sixth floor without pressing any button or doing anything at all. And if you have a meeting on the second floor at 1PM, the elevator would be waiting to take you there.
Elevator manufacturers approach Microsoft for this technology
Such an advanced technology is unlikely to enter the real world any time soon. But Eric Horvitz told The Washington Post that many elevator manufacturers have expressed interest in the technology. Horvitz’s vision is to make human intelligence a part of machines we use.
Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) stock rose 0.95% in pre-market trading Thursday to $36.27.
