Microsoft to Enable Multiple Mouses on a Single PC

In 2005 Joyojeet Pal, a PhD student from Berkeley Institute visited a school run by the Azim Premji Foundation in India. He found several students sharing one PC. One aggressive kid was handling the mouse, while the rest were mere spectators.

When Joyojeet Pal began his summer internship at the Microsoft Research Institute in Bangalore, India, he met an assistant researcher Udai Singh Pawar and an assistant MD of Microsoft Research India, Kentaro Toyama, who listened to his experiences at the Azim Premji Foundation.

The duo from Microsoft sensed a big opportunity in it for the software giant. In order to improve the learning ability of children as well as to give them more chances, they thought they could develop a system wherein each student would have a mouse, and all could operate simultaneously on a single PC.

Thus was born the concept of Multipoint (originally Mutinous) where any device can be connected multiple times to a PC. Microsoft is now working towards converting this concept into a full-fledged software. The alpha version of the MultiPoint software is going to be available for download in January 2007 and the company is even committed to delivering monthly updates of the release till manufacturing starts. This unique idea to increase the student-to-PC ratio developed by Microsoft Research India is now undergoing a technology transfer to the company's market expansion group in Redmond, where it will be further developed and made available for the world's classrooms.

In a family of many kids, it's usually the oldest or the most aggressive that takes charge of the mouse and then the others tend to lose interest since there is no interaction with the mouse.

In 18 rural primary schools studied by researchers, the student-to-PC ratio was as high as 10:1. This is typical for most rural schools in India. Often, one PC is used for the entire class. With MultiPoint, the situation changes dramatically.

Technically, one can add 120 mice to a single PC. But 15 is seen to be a more feasible option. Built on the C programming language, Microsoft is already going about the task of developing some interactive content around this application. This effort will soon receive a major impetus through the Imagine Cup, Microsoft's annual event that encourages students to come up with innovative and business-driven experiments using Microsoft tools. Education will be the theme for the event next year in Korea.