Computing giant Microsoft is centring its plans for future growth less on the office and more on getting consumer-friendly devices into every room in our homes - at least if the projects on display at the country’s research centre in Cambridge are anything to go by.

A “kitchen” at the centre is full of a whole range of the company’s new designs - and few of them are suited to the office environment.

Instead, the focus is on something that would not look out of place next to the fridge or the sofa.

“Microsoft projects have traditionally been orientated towards the office and the personal computer; this is looking at the role that technology has in how families communicate and organise themselves,” the Centre’s managing director Andrew Herbert told BBC World Service’s Digital Planet programme.

“[It’s] a world where you don’t think of technology as a computer and something geeky - it’s got to be much more approachable, much more engaging.

“[It’s about] getting in touch with the emotional side of computing.”

Thinking differently

Rather than being packed with hi-tech equipment, a number of the things on display in the kitchen appear deceptively simple - such as what at first glance looks like a basic Post-It notepad and a pen.

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