At a recent trip to Microsoft Research Laboratory in the company's Redmond, Wash., headquarters, the company showed CNNMoney several whiz-bang, early-concept hardware creations.
Researchers there are working on wild inventions such as a wearable projector that allows you to access your smartphone screen on your hand, a mechanical butterfly that flaps its wings and changes color depending on your mood, and a robot proxy that attends meetings in your place.
Microsoft is also developing its popular Kinect gaming accessory to work with tools beyond just the Xbox.
Google too is developing some very futuristic hardware. The company showed off its cyborg-like Project Glass glasses at its I/O developers conference last week in a stunt straight out of an action movie. Google announced Wednesday that the glasses will be available for testing next year, and they will likely go on sale in 2014.
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