Microsoft Demos SideShow Remote from Exceptional Innovation at WinHEC

Here at Microsoft WinHEC (Windows Hardware Engineering Conference), we just got a first glimpse of standalone auxiliary displays running Microsoft's SideShow.

SideShow has been demonstrated often, usually in the form of an LCD panel on the outside of a notebook computer. It's an auxiliary display that gives us easy access to certain lightweight versions of traditional applications, like Outlook, without having to boot up the PC.

We broke the news in March about SideShow's potential implementation in universal remote controls. Demonstrated for the first time during the Media Center Boot Camp at the Electronic House Expo the SideShow-enabled remote would enable users to browse pictures, scan electronic programming guides, even receive RSS feeds with nothing more than an inexpensive, thin device with a small screen. The heavy-duty processing and the information storage takes place in a connected PC.

Today at WinHEC, Greg Graceffo, senior product manager for Windows Client, showed three real-life examples of SideShow-enabled devices that will probably ship by the time Vista rolls out in early 2007. (SideShow is a Vista technology.)

For starters, it looks like we may have a winner in the SlideShow-enabled universal remote category. Graceffo announced that Exceptional Innovations (whose Mike Seamons co-chaired Media Center Boot Camp with me) would be shipping such a product with the Vista launch. I'll provide more info on the remote as it becomes available, but I assume the device will enable access and control of traditional media-centric functions, as well as the full line of home systems (security, lighting, HVAC, etc.) that are controllable through EI's Lifeware automation software.

In another demo, Microsoft modified a G15 keyboard from Logitech to run SideShow. Normally used for gaming applications, the LCD on the keyboard in this case was used to show instant messages and calendar information from Outlook -- you know, for when your spouse IMs you to quit playing those silly games.

Finally, Graceffo demonstrated SideShow implemented in a digital picture frame, where a slideshow of full-screen photos was overlayed with Outlook appointments and instant messages. He said a company called A Living Picture plan to ship the product with the Vista launch, but I haven't been able to track down info about this company.

(UPDATE: We finally tracked down A Living Picture. You can read some more about the new Digital Picture Frame here.)

Much more news about SideShow and other WinHEC developments over the next few days.