Microsoft has shown off a smart campus concierge it is piloting called ‘Garcon’ which is set to be used for facilities management across its Redmond campus.

In a video released yesterday, Microsoft demonstrated a single instance of Garcon, which is a small panel that is incorporated into the wall of an office space.

Staff swipe their access badge against the panel and are then able to communicate through it using voice.

The first application allows the staff member to lodge a ticket to have a facility attended to, such as a water spill.

The Garcon panel itself converts speech to text, and then that data, together with location and other information, is sent to the cloud, from which an alert is sent to the appropriate facilities personnel to attend to the problem.

Microsoft indicated that Garcon could also be used in future to book a meeting room, or to ask about the types of services or food options that are available around the company’s campus.