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Hyderabad, July 15 Imagine a single desktop. Monitor divided into half. Two mouses to click and two keypads. Two young kids, intently engaged in browsing, playing or solving problems et al.

Does it look and sound interesting, to emerge as an economical, education tool for schools to bring more students into the fold of e-learning or getting more children a feel of tapping the ever growing power of the personal computer?

Microsoft, the global IT giant, definitely seems to be thinking so, with its recent innovations in the PC arena with Multipoint. Multipoint enables, multiple input devices such as two mouses and keyboards attached to a single PC and facilitates a number of children use the system at the same time.

There is an upgrade under way, where a couple of children can play a game as well. The shared PC as an education tool was among a host of innovative products developed by bringing in synergies between Microsoft Research India (MSR India), Bangalore and Microsoft India Development Center (MIDC), Hyderabad, was TechXchange-2007 an inhouse event.

About 50 demos and posters, 7 talks on various subject in computer science, and more than 1,000 employees getting a feel of various booths brought up to showcase them were the highlight of the first even TechXchange held on July 12 & 13, said Mr Srini Koppolu, Vice-President & Managing Director of MIDC.

The main idea behind the event was also to bring in closer collaboration and exchange of ideas between MIDC and MSR India. Four areas of software engineering, multilingual systems, mobility & networks and technology for emerging markets, have been identified for joint work, he told newspersons at MIDC.

The MIDC and MSR India have played a significant role in the development of over 20 global products, either developed or under way, including Windows Vista, Virtual PC 2007, RFID & Adapter platforms etc. The company is set to enter the $1.5-billion data protection market with its new offering of a DPM (Data Protection Manager) by the year-end, Mr Srini Koppolu said.

With 80 patents emerging out of MIDC and over 90 publications from MSR during the last year, the two entities hope to pool their strengths further to come up with low cost, innovative products that are tailored to emerging markets like India and other developing countries, he added.

Mr P. Anandan, Managing Director, MSR India, said it has taken about 130 interns (15 per cent from global universities), in addition to about 40 computer science doctorate researchers to drive both frontline research and ‘blue sky’ research. We also have social anthropologists closely working with our researchers and engineers to find interesting solutions to rural and illiterate people’s learning of computers as well, he said.

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