Microsoft Research shows off a prototype 'Menlo' mobile phone

For the past few months, I�ve been trying to piece together what Microsoft codename �Menlo� is. My tipsters described it as a project by Microsoft Researchers to investigate new operating system possibilities in the mobile space.

One of the research papers I mentioned in my original blog post about Menlo has now been published. (Thanks to reader Charon of Ma-Config.com for the tip about the paper�s availability.)

Lo and behold, there�s more in that paper, entitled �User Experiences with Activity-Based Navigation on Mobile Devices,� about Menlo. From that paper:

�Menlo is a prototype mobile device with a capacitive touch screen (4.1? diagonal, 800�480) running Microsoft Windows Embedded CE 6.0 R2 which incorporates a Bosch BMA150 3-axis accelerometer and Bosch BMP085 digital pressure sensor (barometer).�

(Microsoft included an image of a Menlo device in the paper, which I�ve included at right.)

Running on top of the Menlo platform is a new Microsoft Research Silverlight application codenamed �Greenfield,� which is a sensor-centric program allowing users to retrace their footsteps when seeking to find their cars.

Galen Hunt, the Microsoft researcher in charge of the cross-divisional Menlo project, mentioned in his LinkedIn profile that he �negotiated production of custom phone prototypes, designed and implemented major kernel and OS components, implemented runtime and compiler features, and wrote code for demo� as part of his Menlo work.

(Hunt also is the leader of Microsoft�s Singularity project. Singularity is a microkernel operating system which Microsoft Research has made available for license. Singularity also was/is the heart of Microsoft�s Midori distributed operating system incubation project.)

I mentioned in my original blog post a few of the other Microsoft researchers working on Menlo. The new paper on Greenfield/Menlo lists some others, including a couple of user-interface specialists and senosr researchers. Amy Karlson, who is listed as one of the authors of the paper, also is working on Microsoft Research�s �Courier.� (No, no the cancelled dual-screen Courier; the Courier phone-based file exchange system that is one of the projects of MSR�s Cross-Device User Experience team. This team is focused on understanding how to make PC-phone experiences more seamless.)

So what to make of all this? I don�t think Microsoft is going to build its own Menlo phone. (Been there, done that with the failed Kin.) I do think the Menlo team is continuing to focus on a new mobile operating system � not just the existing Windows Embedded Compact-based ones � that will work on a variety of processors.

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