Enabling easy service, Microsoft unravels its ‘Garage’ for customers

Hyderabad, March 25: Have you ever heard about an electronic garage? No, then here is one for you. Microsoft today formally opened the "Microsoft Garage" at its India Development Centre (IDC) in Hyderabad.

The idea behind opening the Garage is like a source that supports experimentation and encourages problem solving in new and innovative ways. It ultimately aims at empowering people to achieve more. The Garage is a platform for Microsoft employees that supports and encourages a culture of experimentation, working together across organisations and technology to explore ideas and build models, adding value to existing products.

Telangana's Information Technology Minister K. Taraka Rama Rao inaugurated the facility in the presence of Jeff Ramos, Partner Director, Microsoft Garage; Anil Bhansali, Corporate Vice President, Cloud & Enterprise, Managing Director, Microsoft India (R&D) Private Ltd; T.K. Rengarajan, Corporate Vice President, Artificial Intelligence & Research (AI&R), Microsoft Global; and Reena Dayal Yadav, Director, Microsoft Garage India.

Equipped with state-of-the-art and modern facilities, the 8,000 sq.ft Garage India, has been built to support teams from across the company for their various projects.

It has three dedicated lab sections namely a Hub for hackathons and workshops, a Makerspace and an Advanced Makerspace with electronic Workbench, 3D Printers, Laser Cutter, PCB milling machine for creating prototypes; a Reality Room dedicated to working in the space of Augmented Reality (AR) Virtual Reality (VR); and Mixed Reality applications and dedicated space and equipment for doing work on Deep Learning.

Some of the projects that got their start in the Microsoft Garage in the recent past include Seeing AI, an app for visually impaired people that narrates the world around for them; SMS Organizer, an app created for the Android OS that organises, categorises and customises the user's SMS inbox, helping them focus on categories of messages that are important to them.

Favorite Lock Screen is a unique lock screen app created for the Android OS that provides users with daily HD wallpapers and news about their favourite celebrities and interests; and Kaizala, mobile app and service designed for large group communications and work management.