Late last week Microsoft held their annual Windows Hardware Engineering Community conference, aka WinHEC, in Shenzhen, China. During the kick-off keynote, Microsoft's Terry Myerson and Alex Kipman told everyone about Project EVO and the plans for mixed reality on devices running the Windows 10 Creators Update.
In addition, Myerson also revealed Microsoft's new partnership with Qualcomm to deliver the full version of Windows 10, including emulation to run x86 desktop programs, to devices running on Qualcomm's Snapdragon ARM chips.
According to Pcworld, Microsoft already has Cortana up and running on several of its platforms including yet not constrained to PCs, smartphones, and gaming consoles. It certainly wants the personal digital assistant to spread its wings and to enable Cortana to do that, Microsoft is going to expand the assistant to "Internet of things devices" with the Windows 10 Creators Update that's due early next year.
Microsoft announced during a WinHEC conference session that Cortana is going to be coming to "Internet of Things devices" with displays powered by Windows 10 with the Creators Update that's due next year. Now that it has been confirmed by Microsoft that Cortana will be landing on IoT devices with displays, we can expect the digital personal assistant to live inside products such as smart home appliances, thermostats, and more.
Reported by Arstechnica, Aside from Cortana on IoT devices with screens, the WinHEC session included a detailed look at far-field voice support which is also coming to Cortana in the Creators Update. This feature will allow Cortana to work at a distance of 13 feet with ambient noise. Another new feature, Wake on Voice from Modern Standby and will let Cortana wake a PC from a screen-off state.
Both features would certainly come in handy on IoT devices with Cortana. Microsoft plans to see the principal Cortana-fueled IoT gadgets take off in late 2017 around the back-to-class or holiday shopping seasons.
