Trower heads the Microsoft Robotics Group, a nine-person operation with the modest trappings of a start-up company but grand ambitions befitting a $44 billion software giant.

Microsoft aims to bring robotics technology to the masses with programming software to ease the development of new applications, replicating an approach it adopted in the early days of the personal computer industry.

"It really is like a little bit of deja vu," said Trower, a 24-year veteran at Microsoft. "The thing that sounds very familiar (with the PC) is you had people asking 'Why would I want to own this technology?'"

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, the PC industry was fragmented and limited to only the geekiest die-hards who could grasp the technology's complexity and appreciate its potential.

News source: Reuters