Bill Gates says robots will follow the same trajectory of growth as personal computers.

Bill Gates published an "ambition manifesto" in this month's *Scientific American* — "A Robot in Every Home" (Microsoft recently released Microsoft Robotics Studio, similar to the game development platform XNA Game Studio Express, as part of Microsoft's plan to replicate its Windows development empire in other industries). The official Chinese version, *Global Science*, also published a full translation of the article.

Summary:

- Analyzes the current state of robot development.

- Explores the origins and preparatory process behind Microsoft's decision to enter the robotics market.

- "The difficulty with hardware is not the most critical; what will truly ignite a普及 revolution is a unified software platform."

- Illustrates a series of astonishing scenarios robots might bring in the future, along with the various challenges and opportunities the industry must face to enter households.

Gates predicts that "robots are about to repeat the path of the rise of personal computers, igniting the 'fuse' for the popularization of robots, and this revolution will certainly change the lifestyle of this era just like personal computers did." Some enthusiasts have begun comparing the current development of the robotics industry with the early days of personal computers 30 years ago, concluding that they are "extremely similar."

Although Microsoft's initiatives often fade away or are abandoned midway (web developers should be familiar with "DHTML" and Atlas), Gates' article and the release of Microsoft Robotics Studio still inspire excitement about the future landscape. I've already included buying a programmable bipedal robot in my shopping plans for this year, though I haven't decided yet whether to go with the currently popular "Robosapien" or Lego's Mindstorm NXT...