Microsoft chief research and strategy officer Craig Mundie. "Mobile is something that you want to use while you're moving, and portable is something that you move and then use. "These are going to bump into one another a little bit and so today you can see tablets and pads and other things that are starting to live in the space in between. Personally I don't know whether that space will be a persistent one or not." Mundie went on to talk about a new type of smartphone technology he had seen in the labs. When the user looks at the phone, "instead of seeing a screen it can beam individual rays of light into your eyes right on your retina ... [so] you can look at your phone and see HDTV". "I don't know whether the big screen tablet pad category is going to remain with us or not," he said.

Mundie's views diverge from that of Apple founder Steve Jobs, who believes tablets form an integral part of the "post-PC" era. Although Mundie and Jobs agree to an extent in that they both believe smartphones are becoming our main computing device, Microsoft has consistently criticised tablets for lacking traditional PC features like keyboards. Ballmer has previously said the iPad was just a new type of PC form factor. Mundie's comments about tablets go some way towards explaining why the software giant has only made a half-hearted attempt to enter the tablet space so far. Microsoft founder Bill Gates attempted to kick-start the tablet revolution over a decade ago when the company supported a range of laptop-like devices with screens that could swivel to become tablets, operated by a stylus. However, these types of tablets never took off and it took Apple's iPad to bring the technology to the masses. Now, tablets are the fastest-growing category of computers but it is largely a two-horse race between Apple and Google's Android.

Several Windows 7-based tablets have been announced - Acer launched two in Australia today - but these have been heavily criticised because they do not offer a more modern touch-friendly interface, instead attempting to shoe-horn the regular desktop version of Windows into a tablet form factor. As for desktops, Mundie had a bold prediction: "I believe the successor to the desktop is the room, that instead of thinking that the computer is just something on the desk that you go and sit in front of, [in the] future basically the whole room is the computer and you go in it." Mundie spent most of his talk discussing the Kinect motion-sensing accessory for the Xbox 360, soon to be offered for the PC as well. Kinect was recently crowned the fastest-selling consumer electronics device by Guinness World Records, ahead of both the iPhone and iPad. The Kinect's 3D cameras and microphones essentially turn the player's body into the game controller, and users can interact with the Xbox using gestures and voice commands Microsoft has recently opened Kinect up to developers, who have used the inexpensive but powerful sensor to create a range of new applications that were unheard of when Kinect was first unveiled.

These extend far beyond gaming and one example given by Mundie is a team of students in Germany who developed a way for blind people to ride a bicycle. They used a Kinect sensor - connected to a laptop in a backpack - strapped to a helmet, which was coupled with a belt with three vibrating panels that would be able to communicate directions to the blind rider. Mundie envisions Kinect being used to deliver personalised education and health care to people in remote areas. Kinect allows the computer to see and hear the user and it could therefore interact with people in a more human way. Mundie calls this the "natural user interface". Microsoft showed a video of a computer interacting with a mother and her child in India. The computer was able to diagnose whether the child's symptoms warranted seeing a doctor by asking various questions - "is your tummy hurting" - and then schedule the doctor's appointment. "The avatar doctor ... is just figuring out with each additional answer what is the possible conditions that this kid has and then it finally makes a decision whether it's an acute problem or not an acute problem," Mundie said.

The technology could also revolutionise teaching, he said, by freeing the teacher up from having to deliver basic information and perform administrative tasks. "Today we have this lecture model of teaching ... and yet I think it may be possible to invert that role if you have a computer that can deliver a lot of basic training on a personalised basis and do the assessment and testing and provide an immediate closed feedback loop ... the teacher is then free from administrative aspects and the basic broadcasting of information." Loading Mundie said that within five years computers and televisions would be sold with Kinect sensors built in. This reporter is on Twitter: @ashermoses