Microsoft Unveils 'Avatar' Project

Microsoft has unveiled a video of its robotic 'avatar', capable of interaction with humans, tech news site PC Mag reported on Thursday.

According to a demonstrative video presented by Microsoft's chief research strategy officer Craig Mundie, while addressing the analyst meeting at Redmond, Washington, the robot can interact with humans.

The video shows a woman interacting with the robotic avatar of a nurse, discussing her son’s illness.

The technology for the 'avatar' project, inspired by James Cameron’s film, will allow users to choose an avatar online to control another robotic version on behalf of the system.

“The idea that you'll interface, that seems to have something like a lifelong presence that is not necessarily real, or real as we know it, will become more and more acceptable to people," Mundie said.

Mundie said that the technology used for creating the robot - a combination of machine learning, the ability to sense depth, gestural interface technology, identity recognition, multi-party interaction, parallel programming, and speech recognition - were all developed while creating Kinect.

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The demo video has been be made available on the PressPass page of the company's website.