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Wired, By Michael Kanellos, greentechmedia, May 10, 2010
Don't worry about Microsoft trying to follow your every move. The company probably already knows what you will do next.
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One experimental program, appropriately called Predestination, collects and processes data about urban traffic patterns, the behavior of drivers, your personal driving habits, the time of day, the time of year and other data. It then takes this data and puts it into an in-car recommendation engine that gives drivers dynamic advice on getting to their destination - or what the machine believes your destination will be based on your behavior - in the most efficient way at the moment.
"We can give you the traffic information without you having to ask for it," Rashid said.
See more in the video.
In a similar way, other researchers at Microsoft have studied the daily schedule of individuals - When are they at their desks? How many times do they get up? How long are they gone? - to devise programs to curb power consumed by PCs, lights and air conditioners at work.
Read more.