05.08.2009 05:21
Back to the future at Redmond
David Saura (special correspondent)
Barça players and directors pay a visit to Microsoft’s headquarters in Redmond and discover that the future is not that far off.
A Barcelona party made up of the club’s directors, players and coaching staff have today
visited Microsoft’s HQ at Redmond near Seattle, where the team is to play tomorrow against
the Sounders. As part of their tour of the corporate campus, the Barça party has visited one of its
most innovative facilities, the House of the Future.
Barcelona
directors and players, led by Joan Laporta, were met by Microsoft executives including senior
vice-president Orlando Ayala and Microsoft CEO in Catalonia Carles Grau, who hosted the tour of
Microsoft’s modern facilities where innovation is the crucial word – the company spends
$9 billion per year on R&D to head the worldwide table.
A concept of digital life
One of the highlights of the day was the visit to the House of the
Future, a pioneering project which began in 1994 and since then has been inventing, reimagining and
expanding the potential of technology to evolve our digital lifestyle both now and in the future.
The House is in the Microsoft Executive Briefing Center and Barça’s players, coaches and
directors got a first-hand look at the complex which operates with technologies that could improve
home life over the next five to ten years.
What will the house of the future be like?
The House of the Future in Redmond simulates a complete domestic environment with an
entrance, kitchen, bedrooms, living room, games room, etc. Although the technology it features is
basically futurist, the House of the Future has been designed to resemble a contemporary home with
which the visitor is familiar. The touch applications and speech recognition technology are just
some of the tools provided by technology to make life easier in the future.
Unzué between the sticks again
In one of the funniest moments on the tour, goalkeeping coach Juan Carlos Unzué volunteered to try
out a video game which has yet to be released and where interaction requires gestures and not
words. Unzué played as a virtual goalkeeper who was pretty successful at keeping out the hail of
shots directed at his goal.
The Barça party also tried out a touch table featuring a range of applications including
maps, photographs and drawing tables. Pep Guardiola opened up a map to find his home town of
Santpedor near Manresa, while some of the directors looked for Camp Nou.