Meet Louise, Microsoft’s digital assistant before Cortana

Cortana may have only debuted with Windows Phone 8.1 recently, but Microsoft has been experimenting with personal digital assistants for years. In newly released videos, the software maker has detailed Project Louise, an automated personal assistant that started life back in 2010. Many of the features that Cortana performs on Windows Phone were present in the prototype versions of Louise, including the ability to control calendar events and search for nearby restaurants.

There’s even a hint at how Cortana may debut in Windows 8, with a restaurant booking demo of Louise on a Windows 8 tablet. While Louise was clearly a codename for what has become Cortana, Microsoft did consider Alyx and Naomi as final names for the digital assistant....

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