Tomorrow's tech at Microsoft Innovation Day

Microsoft hosted its fourth Innovation Day in Brussels this week, with partner organisations showing off the technology wares they predict could take off in the near future.

This photo shows a system, developed by the Microsoft Research team in Cambridge, whereby a car learns how to drive around a track within a computer game. With further work, it's hoped the system can be tested on real vehicles.

The three green laser lines measure the time until impact with various objects, while the lines on the road show the route the car has taken previously, which it uses to perfect its line.

This is the "Smart Board" developed by Living Tomorrow along with Microsoft.

It's a large touchscreen with a range of widget-like apps designed to be used in the home.

This version is aimed at the kitchen and includes a stock-checking application. When unpacking shopping, you can scan items against the screen (using RFID) which notes which items are being brought in. You can then keep track of the items you have in stock.

It also has an application called "Eco Track" (top right) that measures how much carbon your house is producing at any one time.

You can also interact with the Smart Board by using the touchscreen to write the names of items you want to check are in the house or need to be added to your shopping list.

This is the "Intelligent Mirror", also part of Living Tomorrow's vision of the home of the future.

Designed for people who need to closely monitor their health, the mirror displays heart rate and blood pressure — measured via the handle of a toothbrush — and includes reminders for taking medication.

This shows an application that projects images onto real objects held in front of a camera. This is a car brochure (being held to the right of the screen) with a 3D image of the car it relates to being placed on top of the brochure on the screen.

You can change the car's colour by placing your finger on the appropriate parts of the brochure.

Developed by Virtual Events, it's designed for use in marketing and in retailing.

Also created by Virtual Events, this is a floor that reacts to your movements, much like Microsoft's Surface technology.

On this app, the water moves when you place your foot on the image and the fish react to your movements by swimming away.

This is a robot, developed by Robosoft, which can navigate by itself and be used for a variety of purposes, such as helping elderly people with daily tasks like cleaning.

It can also be used to allow healthcare workers to monitor patients and interact with them without visiting as frequently as is now the case, or to provide social interactions for people who may not be able to leave the house as much as they would like.

This shows an address-finding technology created by Microsoft Research developers in Bangalore, India.

Users can input general details of a location — such as street names or a particular landmark. The algorithms in the system then come up with likely locations and show them on the map with the closest matches listed first.

This is seen as particularly useful in India where exact addresses and locations are sometimes hard to pinpoint.

This is an interactive whiteboard developed by Smart Technologies.

These are now widely used in schools, replacing the traditional blackboard or whiteboard.

Teachers can create and save lesson slides, while pupils can interact with the board to answer questions — such as labelling a diagram in biology.

This slide shows a historical map of Europe, put together by an Innovation Day visitor, with related items placed over various geographical areas.