FCBARCELONA.CAT

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.