Gates pushes touch-screen, speech technology
<p class="textBodyBlack"><span id="byLine"></span>PITTSBURGH - People will increasingly interact with computers using speech or touch-screens rather than keyboards, Microsoft Corp. Chairman Bill Gates said.</p><p class="textBodyBlack"><span id="byLine"></span>(Msnbc.com is a joint venture of Microsoft and NBC Universal.)</p><p class="textBodyBlack"><span id="byLine"></span>"It's one of the big bets we're making," he said during the final stop of a farewell tour before he withdraws from the company's daily operations in July.</p><p class="textBodyBlack"><span id="byLine"></span>In five years, Microsoft expects more Internet searches to be done through speech than through typing on a keyboard, Gates told about 1,200 students and faculty members Thursday at Carnegie Mellon University.</p><p class="textBodyBlack"><span id="byLine"></span>Gates also said the software that is proliferating in various branches of science, including biology and astronomy must become even more advanced.</p><p class="textBodyBlack"><span id="byLine"></span>"They're dealing with so much information that ... the need for machine learning to figure out what's going on with that data is absolutely essential," he said.</p><p class="textBodyBlack"><span id="byLine"></span>Microsoft is trying to establish ties not only with university computer science departments but also with researchers in other scientific areas "to help us understand where new inventions are necessary," Gates said.</p><p class="textBodyBlack"><span id="byLine"></span>Gates plans to retire as Microsoft's chief software architect in July and focus on philanthropy.</p><div class="textBodyBlack"><i>Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.</i></div>