This rivalry of giants is a corporate classic. It extends to speculative domains such as robotics. And once again, it is a clash of styles.
Microsoft
Gates group is working on Microsoft Robotics Studio. This software programs, simulates and controls a variety of robots. As I mentioned in another article on robotics, Gates himself believes that robots are at the same stage of development as computers in the 1970s. Microsoft is now attempting to create user-friendly software to easily program robots in the style of LabVIEW (using the “blocks and wires” paradigm), which can be downloaded for free. Many companies, like Braintech, design functions that can be directly integrated into the program for visual recognition. Many other robot manufacturers are gradually adhering to Windows’ robot platform to make them more widely accessible. Microsoft’s idea is a good one. It leads to greater standardization in robotics, which should help it take off.
True, Google isn’t directly into robotics, at least as far as I know. But they’re not far from it, either. They’ve bought technologies at Stanford and sponsored a the Google Lunar X Prize. It is mainly a Google alumnus, Scott Hassan, who is financing Willow Garage. Willow is seeking to develop an open source mechanical and virtual platform and provide it to roboticists. The idea is the same as Microsoft’s: they want to avoid reinventing the wheel for every step forward. Here’s a recent video showing the current state of their PR2 (Pr = Personal Robotics).
Yes, Google made Hassan rich. He has the resources to fund this private laboratory with a permanent staff of sixty.