Tech: You may soon use Microsoft's Cortana voice assistant to control your air conditioning (MSFT)

Microsoft is trying to push Cortana in the smart home.

Microsoft's Cortana voice assistant is making the jump from computers and smartphones to the Internet of Things.

Johnson Controls, a company that develops services that manage buildings' ventilation and fire detection systems, just unveiled a smart thermostat that comes with Cortana built in. The company showed off the thermostat, dubbed GLAS, in a short video posted on YouTube on Wednesday.

Similar to rival smart thermostats like Google's Nest or Hive in the UK, GLAS can detects whether you're in the room, and tells you what the air quality is. It also comes with a touchscreen display where you can check the temperature, air quality, energy usage, and even calendar information. Its main difference is that you can interact with it using a voice assistant.

GLAS, runs on Microsoft's Windows 10 IoT Core, which is a version of the software giant's flagship operating system that was developed for smaller devices. We first saw GLAS on The Verge.

But neither Microsoft nor Johnson Controls whether the thermostat will be sold to consumers in the UK or US, or how much it will cost.

The thermostat is just the latest example of Microsoft pushing its voice assistant in the smart home. The Creators Update to Windows 10 IoT Core, which the company released in March, allows smart appliances with screens to run Cortana. It's possible GLAS is intended to show you what you can do, and it might be an indication that you'll be seeing a lot more smart gadgets featuring Cortana popping up over the next year.

Here's Johnson Controls' video for GLAS:

SOURCE - PULSE.NG posted by Campus94