What you need to know

• Microsoft Research is a division that forms a large part of Microsoft's R&D efforts. 
• Exploring new technologies and analysing user behavior, Microsoft Research has been heavily involved in some of Microsoft's most forward-facing products and services. 
• However, until now, Microsoft Research as pertains to Xbox has focused mostly on consumers. 
• In a blog post, the team explained that they're not pivoting to game developers as well, to study how to improve Xbox's onboarding and publishing process. 

Not bringing your game to Xbox? Microsoft wants to know why. 

Microsoft Research is Microsoft's R&D arm, spear heading cutting edge technologies and future-facing products for over 30 years. The division has several hundred employees and represents a large part of Microsoft's expenditure according to its SEC filings, contributing to major technological advancements that power some of its most popular products. Microsoft Research is a prolific source of Microsoft's broader patent portfolio, which remains one of the most lucrative in the entire world, and has been a cornerstone of its efforts to become an AI powerhouse in the race to commercialize artificial intelligence services. 

On the gaming side of things, Microsoft Research develops products and features that led to things like Kinect, DirectX, DirectSR, Xbox cloud gaming, and much more. Typically, Microsoft Research's efforts have focused on consumers when it comes to gaming, whether it's building products for them or improving the experience of existing services. But that's about to change. 

In a blog post, Microsoft Research revealed that it's developing a program to engage game creators directly, exploring ways it can improve its systems, processes, and services. 

Dr. Deborah Hendersen, Principal User Researcher for Xbox explained, "We've known for a while this is a gap. We do lots of work on games, on hardware, on the [Xbox dashboard], and yet most of the systems for collecting feedback on the back-end were less formal. Honestly, I think it's very similar to the reasons studios often take a while to dedicate these sorts of resources to game-tools. The player always comes first."

Indeed, Microsoft's gaming division had a quite prolific PR snafu recently when the game developers behind Enotria put Xbox on blast, basically blaming Microsoft's back end publishing systems for their game's delay. I wouldn't be surprised if this effort is perhaps tied to that situation. 

Dr. Hendersen detailed how Microsoft Research for game developers will follow similar practices to those seen by the Xbox Insider Program, focusing on their pain points with various aspects of the Microsoft gaming ecosystem. "We do all sorts. It really depends on the question we're trying to answer. Common methods are interviews, usability, playtesting, surveys, and flighting. It's the same sort of studies we perform when testing games, just on tools and services. Whenever we recruit, we'll give participants the details of the specific study so they can make sure they're a fit. Ensuring that participants feel they can properly contribute to the program is a key priority."

Using surveys gathered from developers, Microsoft hopes to be able to improve its back end processes for Xbox gaming across both PC and console, hoping developers will feel "empowered and supported" by Xbox. It follows the company's core values to "help other do more," which Xbox has arguably fallen behind in based on some interviews and testimonials from developers. ID@Xbox, Microsoft's program for independent game developers, has paid out billions of dollars to creators. But we've heard previously how Xbox's publishing back end systems are a bit of a mess. Just this past week, Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster Collection was mis-tagged on the Xbox Store for example, not being correctly listed as an Xbox Play Anywhere title. You'd think some of these fundamentals and basics would be automated at this point. 

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Microsoft wants to learn from devs who shun Xbox, too

One of the biggest issues facing Xbox in recent years is the fear that developers don't want to support the platform. The vast majority of games do come to Xbox, but the vast and huge variety of games hitting Steam suggests that it has increasingly become "the" priority destination for game developers, particularly on the indie side of things. Even big publishers like Square Enix have ditched Xbox in recent years, partially due to exclusivity deals, but we've also seen games skip the platform arbitrarily. Capcom explained that it previously couldn't bring Marvel vs. Capcom and its Fighting Game Collection to Xbox due to a "technical" issue. Part of Microsoft's efforts here is to figure out what they can do to improve the experience for developers who aren't on Xbox at all. 

"Typically, it takes a lot of people to make and ship a game, including marketing, user research, artists, audio, PMs, community managers, and more. All these disciplines are vital to the process. We want to hear from everyone who works on games or helps support game studios because if we can make your life easier, it makes gaming better," Hendersen emphasized. "If you are making video games, we're interested in hearing from you. If you aren't on Xbox, we'd love to know why. And honestly, if you are using our competitor's products, you probably have a great perspective we could learn from!"

I have heard from developers in the past that working with Xbox's systems can be a "chore," from developers who spoke on the condition of anonymity. It is rare to see developers criticize Xbox so publicly as to avoid souring relationships, but as I noted above, the Enotria developer Jyamma Games became so frustrated that they felt they had no further recourse than to go public. A lot of developers simply seem to prefer Steam owing to its less restrictive certification processes. However, in Microsoft's defence, the firm is the target of hostile acts from enemy nation states like Russia. As such, security at Xbox is a far bigger priority than some other platforms might have to endure. Microsoft's systems were the target of a prolific hack earlier in the year, which led to an overhaul of the firm's security policies. 

Particularly on PC, the Xbox PC gaming experience isn't the best right now, both for consumers or I presume developers too. While Xbox enjoys widespread mainstream support, the Xbox Store on PC absolutely does not. It very rarely gets new AAA games or even indie games, unless it's part of an Xbox Game Pass deal. Hopefully Microsoft Research can improve the situation here, both for developers and consumers both. 

What you need to know

• A Microsoft study polled people regarding how COVID-19 affects online civility.
• The results of the study generally illustrate that the global pandemic has made online civility worse.
• People from 82% of countries polled believe online civility is worse one year into the pandemic.

The current global pandemic causes stresses in a variety of areas, when people interact online. A new Microsoft study shows that people view the web as a less civil place one year into the global pandemic than before COVID-19 became a worldwide concern.

While the fact that people aren't always civil on the internet isn't new information, the study sheds light on the effects of the current global pandemic on online civility. People in 82% of countries polled for Microsoft's study believe that online civility is worse one year into the pandemic. Only Columbian participants believe that civility online has gotten better since a year of a global pandemic.

For the study, Microsoft polled teens ages 13-17 and adults ages 18-74. In total, over 11,000 people were surveyed for the study. People were asked about 21 online risks ranging across four categories; behavioral, sexual, reputational, and personal/intrusive. Microsoft has researched internet civility for several years, including surveying almost 70,000 people.

Microsoft defines the categories in a footnote:

• Reputational – "Doxing" and damage to personal or professional reputations.
• Behavioral – Being treated meanly; experiencing trolling, online harassment or bullying; encountering hate speech and microaggressions.
• Sexual – Sending or receiving unwanted sexting messages and making sexual solicitations; receiving unwanted sexual attention and being a victim of sextortion or non-consensual pornography (aka "revenge porn").
• Personal/intrusive – Being the target of unwanted contact, experiencing discrimination, swatting, misogyny, exposure to extremist content/recruiting, or falling victim to hoaxes, scams or fraud.

Only 17% of respondents said that online civility improved as a result of COVID-19. 30% said that it worsened due to the global pandemic. Microsoft highlights some other insights from the study:

• "A greater sense of community" tumbled 12 percentage points to 50% from 62% in 2020;
• "People have been more encouraging to each other" dropped eight percentage points to 49% from 57% last year; and
• "People have come together more to deal with the crisis" was down six percentage points to 53% from 59% in the previous study.
• Finally, "more people are reconnecting with friends and family" slipped just two percentage points to 56% from 58%, but a decline, nonetheless.

Microsoft also highlights that three of the five negative outcomes related to COVID-19 increased for the recent study:

• "People are taking out their frustrations online" was up seven percentage points to 67%;
• "People are less tolerant" edged up to 59% from 54% last year; and
• 54% of respondents said they had experienced or witnessed more personal attacks and negative comments this year compared to 53% in 2020.

The full results of the study will be revealed on February 8, 2022, which is Safer Internet Day 2022.

This isn't the first Microsoft study that points to a seemingly obvious fact. In April, Microsoft published a study that explained that it's important for people to have breaks. While these overall facts may seem obvious, studies like this help quantify data, compare how trends affect different regions, and occasionally lead to surprising results.

At Ignite 2019, Microsoft unveiled 'Project Silica', a venture that Microsoft Research has been working on for the last several years that uses laser optics to store virtual data on quartz glass. This is tech designed primarily for storing archival data in the cloud and benefits from long-lasting reliability that stretches into centuries.

This is a huge deal, as storing data for a prolonged time today is a process that needs to be repeated to ensure that data stays good. Hard drives don't last forever and will deteriorate over time. Microsoft hopes that Project Silica will replace tape and optical drives for companies looking to store data for long durations in the cloud.

Unlike tape and optical drives, Project Silica is a block of high-purity quartz glass, which has data etched into it via femtosecond lasers. The data is stored in three-dimensions inside the glass and is read using a microscope imaging and polarized light source. The glass itself is stored in cold storage and can last for longer than a century.

It's early days for Project Silica

The tech is all very futuristic, but it's still very early days for Project Silica. I was shown a small piece of glass that had the Windows 10 ISO stored on it. This equates to around 3.5GB of data, which according to Principle Researcher at Microsoft Research, Dr. Ant Rowstron, took an entire night to write to the glass. That's not very fast, but Microsoft is hopeful this tech will improve and mature over time.

The machinery required to write the data to the glass today is huge, but Microsoft says this tech will be miniaturized over time, with read and write speeds also improving. Microsoft hopes to have this tech in use in Azure data centers within the next decade, so this isn't something you should expect to see in commercial use tomorrow.

It's important to point out that this method of storing data isn't intended for consumers. This is for big companies looking to store archival data. You move data onto it once and rarely touch it again. Microsoft doesn't anticipate this tech will replace storage solutions inside laptops or phones, for example, as that's not what it's indented for.

How is this better than traditional storage mediums?

So why is glass better than what we already have for archiving data? Tape works just fine, as do optical drives. The problem with those forms of data storage is that they deteriorate over time. Tape doesn't last forever, and optical drives last even less time than that. Project Silica solves this problem as, well ... it's glass. It doesn't degrade over time, meaning you can store data on it for as long as it doesn't get smashed or melt.

It's also unaffected by things like water or magnets. It's very easy to destroy tape or optical drives accidentally, but glass, when stored in an archival data center, should be pretty safe from any outside elements. So that's what Project Silica aims to solve: become the best archival cloud storage solution for big companies looking to store large amounts of data.

Project Silica is still a long way from being a commercial product. Yet, Microsoft has signed a partnership with Warner Bros that will see the entertainment giant store its data, such as movies, on Project Silica when it's ready. At Ignite 2019, Microsoft showcased the Superman movie stored on a tiny piece of glass, equating to 76GB of data

This project is easily one of the coolest things I was shown during my time at Ignite 2019 and is just one example of how Microsoft is innovating in spaces I didn't think twice about. What are your thoughts on Project Silica? Let us know in the comments.

Microsoft Research has shared its work on a new kind of smartphone cover that adds a secondary e-ink display to smartphones. Demoed using a Lumia 640, the integrated display cover provides users with a second display for content, increasing screen real-estate on existing phones without too much bulk.

The project sees research teams try to provide another solution to user-demand for more display. Instead of making smartphones bigger, what if you could add a secondary screen in the form of a cover? Microsoft Research describes the following:

While working prototypes did not include a touch-layer, Microsoft Research also envisioned scenarios in which the cover did support touch, providing additional functionality such as using the secondary screen as a keyboard, or as extra screen space for apps like Word to expand into. The secondary display could also be used for pinning important information such as tickets to a concert, the latest happenings within Cortana, and more.

This research project is an interesting insight into how Microsoft is thinking about expanding the mobile form-factor. While most Microsoft Research projects never turn into real products, we do know Microsoft is already hard at work on "Andromeda," a mobile device that runs Windows Core OS with two-screens that's pocketable with telephony capabilities. Andromeda and this e-ink display cover share few similarities, but both focus on using extra screen real-estate for enhanced productivity.

What are your thoughts on this research project? Let us know below!

Spotted by @h0x0d on Twitter!

Microsoft has long been looking at ways to blend our digital and physical worlds, with the most obvious fruit of those efforts being HoloLens and mixed reality. Today, however, Microsoft's research arm took the wraps off of its latest effort, a physical, rollable mat called Project Zanzibar.

At its most basic level, Project Zanzibar is a physical mat that lets you interface with a computer or tablet through a mix of near field communication and touch. This opens up a variety of scenarios in which you can use different objects and touch to play games or bring physical toys and into the digital world.

Microsoft envisions a number of different ways in which Project Zanzibar could be used, with a heavy emphasis on giving children a way to bring their toys to life. Kids could move toys around on the mat's surface while a digital version at the same time. Extending this further, the footage could be captured to make a short movie.

Other potential scenarios involve games, including placing physical cards on the mat to bring them into a digital card game. If you grew up playing Pokémon or Yu-Gi-Oh, then you can imagine how exciting it would be to see the static monsters on your cards come to life as you play them. In a way, Project Zanzibar feels similar to what Nintendo has done with its Amiibo figures, which use NFC to unlock characters and other perks in games, but with far more interactivity thanks to the mat's ability to sense the position of objects and translate that to a game or activity.

Of course, there's an educational element to this as well. The Project Zanzibar team took inspiration from the Montessori Method, which emphasizes physical activity's role in teaching kids academic concepts, in devising exercises for kids. "For example, the Letter Plates Montessori exercise provides feedback as words are formed and tactile letter-shapes are traced," Microsoft says. "Paper overlays on the Project Zanzibar mat do not interfere with functionality and provide additional context to the exercise."

Project Zanzibar certainly looks interesting, and it could show potential not only for interesting new games but in the classroom as well. As for whether the prototype will ever end up as a shipping product, that's up in the air. However, as ZDNet reports, Microsoft is set to reveal more about the project at the ACM CHI Conference in Montreal later in April.

In early 2017, shortly after acquiring Microsoft announced that it would expand its presence in Montreal following its acquisition of local dee-learning research startup Maluuba. A year later, the tech giant is announcing plans to further expand its operations in the Canadian city, hiring a new research director in the process.

Perhaps the biggest move is Microsoft's hiring of Geoffrey Gordon, currently a Carnegie Mellon University professor and prominent artificial intelligence expert, to be the Montreal lab's new research director.

"We want to be doing the research that will be infusing AI into Microsoft products today and tomorrow, and Geoff's research really spans that," said Jennifer Chayes, a technical fellow and managing director of Microsoft Research New England, New York City and Montreal. "He'll be able to help us improve our products and he'll also be laying the foundation for AI to do much more than is possible today."

Additionally, Microsoft says that it plans to double the size of Microsoft Research Montreal over the next two years, increasing to upwards of 75 technical experts.

Chayes calls Montreal "one of the most exciting places in AI right now," and Microsoft has already seen some major advances come out of its local team. Those advances include bolstering machine reading comprehension and even teaching AI to handle complex tasks with none other than Ms. Pac-Man. This research may lead to potentially important discoveries as Microsoft looks to continue its all-out AI push in the coming years. For now, we're already seeing the fruits of early AI experiments in services like Office and Cortana.

Called simply Microsoft Learn Chinese, the iOS app is intended to give learners a way to practice conversation without a partner, Microsoft says. Interestingly, the app also relies on the same machine-learning framework that powers Xiaoying, a chatbot Microsoft launched on WeChat in 2016 to help Chinese speakers learn English.

While apps like Duolingo and Babbel already make it fairly simple to start learning a new language from your phone, Microsoft is looking to close the communication gap that may rear its head with a lack of conversational practice. "You think you know Chinese, but if you meet a Chinese person and you want to speak Chinese, there is no way you can do it if you have not practiced," explained Yan Xia, senior develop lead at Microsoft Research Asia in Beijing. "Our application addresses this issue by leveraging our speech and natural language processing technology."

Leveraging the tech established by Xiaoying, Microsoft Learn Chinese uses deep neural networks to recognize what learners are trying to say and evaluate their pronunciation. The app will then give you feedback with scores, highlighted words that need improvement, and audio to hear the correct pronunciation. "The app will work with you as a language learning partner," said Xia. "It will chat with you and give you feedback based on what you are saying."

Microsoft Learn Chinese is available now for iOS devices on the App Store.

Microsoft has announced (via Geekwire) that its speech recognition technology has reached an error rate of 5.1 percent. The research team describes this as a new industry milestone the substantially surpasses the 5.9 percent error rate that the researchers achieved last year. More importantly, a word error rate of 5.1 percent matches the human error rate achieved in a commonly cited study.

Microsoft utilized a number of new tools to ultimately reduce its speech recognition error rate by around 12 percent compared to last year's result. That's important because this research ultimately powers the accuracy of services used by millions of people every day, like Cortana, Presentation Translator, and Microsoft Cognitive Services.

Reaching human parity in general speech recognition is certainly an achievement, but Microsoft says it still has some work to do in perfecting speech recognition in more complicated environments. From Microsoft:

This development follows an increased emphasis from Microsoft, as well as the tech industry as a whole, on improving artificial intelligence (AI). In addition to speech recognition, Microsoft has been pursuing image recognition, natural language processing, and much more. Microsoft researchers even taught AI to master Ms. Pac-Man, of all things.

There's no doubt that Microsoft is betting big on the power of artificial intelligence (AI) for the future. As part of that bet, the company has been pushing forward with research that not only advances the capabilities of AI, but also explores future applications. In a new segment, BBC's Newsnight has gone inside Microsoft's AI research labs, giving us an interesting look at where the future of AI may take us. Check it out below:

As we propel into the future, Microsoft sees AI blurring the lines in a way that interacting with a computer feels as natural as interacting with another person. We've already seen some early attempts at this with the company's various chatbot efforts. Microsoft's Chinese chatbot, Xiaoice, for example, averages 23 turns per conversation, Dan Driscoll, who works on Microsoft's bot frameworks, says.

AI image recognition and natural language processing are also approaching levels that rival humans, largely thanks to advancements we've only started seeing in recent years, Microsoft explains. Recently, for example, a Microsoft research team was able to train AI to beat Ms. Pac-Man with a higher score than any human had previously obtained. While that may sound somewhat silly, it's part of important research that could eventually impact many different aspects of our everyday lives into the future. One example of the AI's potential covered by the BBC is in farming, where it could help reduce costs and resource consumption while increasing yield.

As touched on in the segment, there are legitimate concerns that AI could be leveraged by bad actors in the future. But, as Microsoft Research's Eric Horvitz explains, AI is also probably the best detector and counter to potential misuse.

Microsoft's cognitive services and AI everywhere vision are making AI in our image

One of the major highlights of Windows 10 on tablets, particularly with Surface, is its pen and inking capabilities. A new video demonstration from Microsoft's Research division shows how that pen and touch input could be enhanced in the future with new interactions that open up all kinds of productivity possibilities in everything from spreadsheets to your browser.

One of the best examples of simultaneous pen and thumb input shown in the video is its first: Excel. Using a sort of radial menu under the thumb in combination with the pen allows for quick copying and pasting of cells, formatting, and navigation. Though it would definitely take some adjustment, proficient use of the simultaneous input techniques could definitely speed up common tasks in Excel.

The rest of the demonstration shows off some other interesting ideas ranging from manipulating layer controls while moving objects in a drawing app, to quickly opening hyperlinks in separate browser tabs with a thumb press and pen tap.

These are all obviously experiments at this point, but they provide a peek into some of the cooler interactions we could see applied in the future. What types of pen and touch input interaction would you like to see for tablets?

Thanks, @farshadatis, for the tip!

Microsoft's Research division has introduced Project Torino, a unique physical programming language meant to help visually impaired children learn to code. As opposed to most coding tools built for kids, which feature simplified drag-and-drop tools, Project Torino is made up of physical "pods" that can be connected to build programs. The hope, Microsoft says, is that this approach will be more inclusive of learners with visual challenges.

Speaking on the project, Microsoft researcher Cecily Morrison explains:

Microsoft Research is carrying out its efforts on the project at the company's Cambridge, UK labs. The ultimate goal, Microsoft says, is to help not only those with visual impairments, but those with dyslexia or autism as well. Aimed at children ages 7-11, Project Torino can also serve as a great way for all children to bridge concepts frm the physical world to a typical coding environment.

Torino has gradually come together over the past year with the help of around a dozen students, incorporating their feedback along the way. Now, however, Microsoft Research is ready to expand trials as it works with the UK's Royal National Institute for the Blind (RNIB) to begin an even bigger trial for Project Torino with around 100 students this month.

Microsoft Research, in collaboration with M.I.T., is working on a project called DuoSkin, which is designed to create a custom control device that can be placed on the skin like a temporary tattoo.

Microsoft and M.I.T have published a paper on their DuoSkin project (via The Verge), which will be officially presented this September as part of the International Symposium on Wearable Computers in Germany. Here's a basic description of how their project works:

The DuoSkin tattoo circuitry is created first with graphic design software, then fabricated by first creating stencils of the circuitry and then applying gold leaf for its conductive material. Finally, the electronics are mounted, and the DuoSkin tattoo is applied on a person's skin with a water-based transfer process.

What do you think about the idea of controlling your phone with a temporary tattoo? Let us know your thoughts in the comments!

The Microsoft Research division continues to work on motion gesture recognition projects similar to the company's efforts with Kinect for its Windows and Xbox platforms.

In a blog post, Microsoft talks about how researchers at its UK labs are working on new tools, called Handpose, for hand gesture recognition for use with a virtual reality headset:

A similar project is being worked on at Microsoft's Advanced Technologies Lab in Israel. It's goal is to replace PC mouse movements with hand and finger gestures. The team recorded millions of hand images and then used that data to come up with every single possible hand pose or motion:

The team hopes that the tools created for Project Prague could be used by apps so users can, say. flip through pages of a PowerPoint presentation by using their hands movements.

A newly revealed Microsoft Research project, uLink, is working on a way for smartphone owners to quickly save and bookmark links inside mobile apps.

While it's easy to copy and past URL on web pages, it's not nearly as simple to do the same with links in mobile apps, such as ones made for shopping, travel or ticket. The uLink project from Microsoft Research (via MSPU) is developing a much easier way to save those mobile app links to access later:

The video shows how uLink could work on a mobile phone. A user accesses a hotel reservation app on his smartphone and then books a hotel on that app. He then shakes the smartphone, which, via the power of uLink, saves the link to that booked hotel page on his Bookmarks app. If a person forgets to save a mobile app link, then realizes he needs to access it, uLink can be set up to let him search through all the mobile app links he has used that day to find the link he needs to save.

It's important to note that this project is being developed by Microsoft Reseach. Many such efforts end up not being released to the public, or they are merged with existing software projects as new features.

Under a new plan, Microsoft will be pushing out new products into the marketplace that are based on projects from its Microsoft Research division. The goal is to beat rivals who might have similar projects in the works.

According to Bloomberg, Microsoft Research previously worked without much feedback or connection with the rest of the company. However, that resulted in a number of potentially interesting products that were never released to the public. That work process changed when Satya Nadella became CEO of Microsoft in 2014.

The result was Skype Translator, which has now been incorporated into the Windows desktop version of Skype. This was just the start of Nadella's changes for Microsoft Research:

So far, the projects that have become real-life products and services include the upcoming Microsoft HoloLens augmented reality helmet and today's announcement of adding reminders in Cortana on Windows 10 based on scanning emails for jobs that users have been given to complete.

Source: Bloomberg

Microsoft may be working on its HoloLens augmented reality technology, but the company has some other ideas in that area as well. One of them is called Room2Room, and it combines Microsoft's Kinect depth camera with a digital projector to place an image of a life-sized person in a room for conversation.

According to the MIT Technology Review, the idea from Room2Room is an extension of a previous Microsoft Research project called RoomAlive, which projected interactive gaming content on the sides of a room's walls. It states:

Room2Room still has a number of challenges, such as its complex setup process and the fact that the images are currently projected in a low resolution. However, Microsoft Research says that with improvements in these and other areas, large companies could be using this technology in conference rooms in the next several years.

Source: MIT Technology Review

As promised earlier this year, Microsoft has now released a free ebook title Future Visions. It's an original sci-fi short story collection, featuring new works from a number of well-known science fiction authors, and all of them are based on some of the projects that are being developed by Microsoft Research.

The goal of the collection was to have each author give their own take on what the research projects at Microsoft might turn into in the future:

The stories in the collection include works by Elizabeth Bear, Greg Bear, David Brin, Nancy Kress, Ann Leckie, Jack McDevitt, Seanan McGuire and Robert J. Sawyer, along with a short graphic novel by writer Michele Rosenthal and artist Blue Delliquanti. Microsoft says all of the authors had access to the people and projects in their Research division:

Microsoft adds that a limited number of hardcover print copies of Future Visions will be made, but they won't go on sale to the public.

Download the Future Visions ebook collection from Microsoft

Source: Microsoft

Microsoft is promoting its advanced research efforts in a rather unique way. The company has announced plans to release an original ebook science fiction short story anthology titled Future Visions: Original Science Fiction Stories Inspired by Microsoft. The collection will be released in a number of ebook retailers on November 17.

Here's how Microsoft describes the short story collection:

Some of the authors that have written stories for the collection include Elizabeth Bear, Greg Bear, David Brin, Nancy Kress, Ann Leckie, Jack McDevitt, Seanan McGuire and Robert J. Sawyer. Pricing for the book has yet to be announced. It will be interesting to see if devices and services like Microsoft HoloLens, Kinect, Cortana and others will appear in these stories.

Source: Microsoft; Via: WinBeta

A research team at Microsoft has revealed an idea that it thinks will help greatly extend the battery life of Windows laptops and tablets, which it hopes to see put inside consumer projects at some point in the future.

At the moment, batteries inside notebooks have a hardware-based approach for maintaining its charge. The new Microsoft research project, called Software Defined Batteries, has a different technique:

The team behind the research project have built working prototypes of their battery concept and plan to officially present their ideas at next week's ACM Symposium on Operating Systems Principles.

Source: Microsoft

Microsoft Research has come up with a neat new web-based chat system titled "Cahoots". It's an interesting solution for those who require a helping hand in online chats to come up with witty responses and humorous images. The system from Microsoft will analyze text in your messages and suggest memes and reaction GIF images based on context to help make you appear as the next big thing in comedy.

Images are pulled from the likes of I Can Haz Cheeseburger, Microsoft's own Bing and ReactionGIFs.com, offering some real unique and sometimes hilarious experiences for the two parties involved. Unfortunately, we have no word as to whether or not Microsoft will release Cahoots to the public, but we'll be sure to alert you all should the tool become available.

Check out the PDF from Microsoft Research (linked below) for more details.

Source: Microsoft Research (PDF), via: Engadget

How are Microsoft ensuring that Halo 5 will be well-balanced and bug-free come October? Well, this latest video from Microsoft Research explains how 343i are using big data to quash every bug and fine tune combat.

Senior Microsoft researcher Rob DeLine takes us on a tour of Trill, a high-performance analytics engine, and Tempe, a web service for exploring that data. In the video, DeLine describes how 343i were able to use the data from Trill to discover a bug with one of Halo 5's medals, which awards the player for catching a weapon they'd launched into the air using a grenade. The medal was being awarded suspiciously often in play tests, they discerned this information via Tempe.

Using Halo 5's spectator mode, they were able to view the medals being awarded in-game, and discovered that a weapon became primed to deliver the medal simply by being inside a grenade's blast radius. 343i were able to squash the bug rapidly thanks to Microsoft Research's tools.

After the complaints over Halo 4's multiplayer, it certainly seems as though 343i are pulling out all the stops to ensure Halo 5 is a hit out of the box. If Trill collects data on awarded medals, you can rest assured that it gathers data on weapons, kills and other aspects of play to help 343i tune a balanced experience.

To read more about Trill, head over to Microsoft Research's project site here.

Halo 5 launches exclusively on Xbox One on October 27th.

The Kinect is at once a niche and – forgive the pun – game-changing technologies. Although it has not quite resonated yet with customers in actual gaming, the potential is there for some fantastic experiences in the coming years.

One issue with all systems that detect motion is accuracy. Version 2 of the Kinect is certainly more powerful than its predecessor, but the nuances of finger movement are still lacking. Enter 'Handpose' a project that Microsoft Research has been working on for some time.

The researchers combined 3D hand modeling with machine learning to "to teach the computer how to infer hand poses".

So what are some possible uses for such a technology? In a detailed blog post, Microsoft suggests these scenarios:

• Artificial Intelligence - Helping computers interpret our body language, including mood and pointing at objects
• Video games – Reaching out and grabbing something instead of using a controller
• Sign language translation
• General computer tasks – Email sorting, manipulation of objects on screen aka the 'Minority Report' experience

Interestingly, the article does not mention Microsoft's HoloLens, which relies heavily on hand gestures for clicking and object manipulation. It would seem from our experience that HoloLens at least makes some use of this technology, and if not, will do so in the future.

Watch the above videos that explain how it all works or read the detailed article from Next at Microsoft.

Source: Next at Microsoft

The Image Composite Editor (ICE) is Microsoft Research's advanced panoramic image stitcher for Windows, which has been overhauled to version 2.0. Importing a number of overlapping photographs from a single scene will enable the app to create a seamless high-resolution panorama. Think of this as a suite to create similar magic as the Windows Phone panoramic feature.

What's more is the app also supports videos too, creating a panorama from a panning video. Once completed, the end results can be shared and viewed in 3D on the Photosynth website. A variety of image formats are supported for added compatibility peace of mind.

Note that you'll need to use photos from the same scene. The app simply will not work with images taken from different scenes (as highlighted in the above photo). The first handful of images selected on our screen are identical and could produce a sweet panorama.

Some of the features we've covered are part of the version 2.0 overhaul, which introduced a new automatic image completion feature, filling in the missing pixels when creating a panorama.

Head to Microsoft's website (linked below) for more details and to download.

Source: Microsoft; thanks, Sarang D., for the tip!

Skype is one of the most popular forms of communication across mobile platforms and the desktop. Microsoft Research is working on real-time translation functionality to enable consumers to use Skype and engage in conversation with others from around the world. George Takei, better known as Mr Sulu in Star Trek, visited Microsoft Research to see how the technology works.

Peter Lee, head of Microsoft Research, explained to Takei during his visit what Skype Translator is about and how it has the capabilities to enrich the lives of millions (skip to 3:15). Looking at other projects under way at the company, the USS Enterprise veteran also touches on the new culture at Microsoft and how the company is looking at ways to improve lives, which we've covered in the past.

Takei appeared to be impressed by the translator tech, but would you make use of such a feature in Skype?

Thanks to everyone who tipped us!

Microsoft Research is constantly working on projects that may never actually be released to the public. However, that doesn't mean they are not extremely cool. That's certainly the case with with two recently revealed projects: FlexSense and RoomAlive.

FlexSense centers on a transparent and thin piece of plastic that has sensors on top that can be placed on top of a Windows tablet like a Surface Pro 3 The presentation video shows that FlexSense could offer tablet users some new and innovative ways to interact with apps. For example, placing the cover on the tablet while a photo app is running could allow users to physically peel off the cover to show off the effects of a photo filter. It could also be used as a game controller, a photo editing assistant and more.

The other project is called RoomAlive, which is a revision of a previous Microsoft Research effort called IllumiRoom. Both IllumiRoom and RoomAlive offer gamers a way to see content projected beyond the TV screen and monitor that cover up a room's walls as well.

RoomAlive is an advancement over IllumiRoom in that in addition to displaying game content on walls, it can also allow gamers to interact with elements that are placed in the room. Using a combination of projectors and depth cameras, Microsoft says, "Users can touch, shoot, stomp, dodge and steer projected content that seamlessly co-exists with their existing physical environment."

While both FlexSense and RoomAlive look and sound impressive, keep in mind that most Microsoft Research projects never make it out of the lab, although some elements of these efforts could be incorporated into future products. What do you think of FlexSense and RoomAlive?

Source: Microsoft Research, Projection Mapping Central

The Xbox One you bought might be the last console you ever need to buy. At least if Microsoft's new cloud gaming solution leaves the research labs sooner rather than later. Microsoft Research has just published their work on DeLorean – a speculative execution system for mobile cloud gaming.

Cloud gaming has the potential to make your console (and gaming PC) obsolete. The biggest hurdle to overcome before we reach this gaming utopia is latency. As you probably know, latency is the time interval between an initial input and the output. Latency is normally measured in milliseconds.

Most gamers deem the responsiveness of their game unacceptable when the latency in exceeds the 100ms threshold. Something that isn't that uncommon with most cellular and Wi-Fi networks.

DeLorean is a new system from Microsoft Research that uses speculation to enable low-latency continuous interactions in cloud gaming. Latencies of up to 250ms can be masked by the DeLorean system.

The magic of DeLorean happens when the system produces speculative rendered frames to the gamer. It does this by combining future input prediction, state space subsampling and time shifting, misprediction compensation and bandwidth compensation. If you understand any of this you're going to want to hit up the source below to read their paper that goes into greater detail.

What does this mean for you, dear gamer? It means we might have a future where you can play a twitch shooter like Call of Duty on your Windows tablet. Microsoft has already tested the DeLorean system on Fable 3 and Doom 3. Gamers who played those two games on the cloud preferred DeLorean to other available cloud gaming solution.

Source: Microsoft Research Via: Neowin

Microsoft Research has released a new app into the Windows Phone Store. WindUp is an app that allows you to create and share temporary messages. Think Snapchat, but with the ability to send more media types, and it's from a team of researchers.

Here's the Store description of WindUp:

With WindUp for Windows Phone, you can send photos, audio recordings, video and text to your friends. Those messages then will fade into the ether after a time set by you.

Take WindUp for a spin and let us know what you think of the app.

• Download WindUp for Windows Phone

Via: Neowin

A new project being undertaken at Microsoft Research involves turning first person videos into smooth timelapses, which Microsoft calls hyperlapses. Normally, when a first person video is sped up into a timelapse, the footage is shaky due to the constant movement. Microsoft's project aims to fix that by running the video through its algorithms to create a smoother camera path.

Helmed by researchers Johannes Kopf, Michael Cohen and Richard Szeliski, the project involves reconstructing the video using a 3D camera path that finds the optimal viewpoint, which may differ from the original perspective. The goal is to create the smoothest movement possible so that the end result doesn't look jittery when played back at 10 times the speed of the original video.

Here is a detailed video on how the videos are created:

Interested in the technology? Microsoft is working on making the Hyperlapse algorithm available as a Windows app.

Source: Microsoft Research

Haptic feedback on handheld devices isn't exactly anything new but the folks at Microsoft Research Asia or more specifically, researcher Hong Tan, found that by adding in haptics to add tactile sensations to screens, users could benefit dramatically.

Tan essentially wants to create sensations that people can experience when interacting with their daily objects. Rather than just touching and looking at your devices, Tan would have you interacting with your devices in new ways and have them touching you back.

As she notes, studies have shown simple changes to everyday products such as adding a 'click' to Surface keyboard cover enabled users to not only type faster but more accurately. Check out the video above to get a better look but let us know in the comments, would you actually like your devices to have more feeling? Would you actually want to feel textures and resistance from your devices?

Source: Engadget

Microsoft's foray into the personal assistant business with Cortana opens up many opportunities including integration with other branches of knowledge. One area that may be unfamiliar to the general public is Microsoft's work with Academic Search http://(academic.research.microsoft.com), which is a general search tool for finding articles on particular types of inquiry or the people in those science fields. Indeed, Microsoft Research used to have a Windows Phone 7 app to use this service.

Microsoft Research just published a new video where they discuss how Academic Search and Cortana are merging in early 2015. The demonstration was given at the annual Microsoft Research Faculty Summit where the presenters asked how they could turn Cortana into a research assistant and it follows upon the revelation of Project Adam, which we detailed yesterday.

The difficulty in the task for Cortana is discerning names e.g. Yu Dong, a researcher at Microsoft. In a demonstration question about Microsoft researcher Yu Dong, Cortana recognized him as "You don't" or "U Dong." However, in a newer test version of Cortana, the AI can distinguish the difference, bringing up Yu Dong the researcher, including professional and biographic information. Delving down deeper, Bing brings up a detailed about page, publications, citations, coauthors and how a person is associated to you, a sort of "seven degrees" connection.

Cortana can use this information to recommend talks that academics should attend, or give a personalized schedule based off of research interests. In fact, through Cortana's Notebook feature, which lets users specify interests, scientists can enter in precise research topics for Cortana under a new Academics category. Cortana then recommends papers and talks to the user without them searching for it, much like how Cortana's news works now on Windows Phone 8.1

The goal of this project is obviously to make Cortana significantly more useful search tool for professors and researchers, by letting Cortana map the academic world on a lexical and information level. Consequently, someone doing research could inquire within Cortana about other scholars or have topics brought to their attention, all powered by Bing and Microsoft's Academic Search engine.

Microsoft hopes to have Cortana, Bing and Academic Search integration by early 2015, and they are asking professionals in academia to head to https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/ to build up their scholastic profile to build "the most accurate representation" for their search engine.

To watch presentation yourself, head to the 36-minute mark in the video.

Source: Microsoft Reasearch; Thanks, @shashank_green, for the tip!

Microsoft has made a radical decision to essentially replace the processors used inside servers powering Bing. Codenamed Project Catapult, Doug Burger at Microsoft Research has been working to not physically remove the Intel processors, but rather compliment them with field-programmable arrays (FPGA) processors by Altera. The new components can be modified by the tech giant specifically for use with its own software and tools and handle processing for search.

Microsoft Research ran a pilot-system on Burger's concept to deploy a 1,600 server farm using the new chips. After testing and analysis, Microsoft has now given the green light to roll out the FPGAs to the company's live data centers, which is expected to kick off early next year. It's an interesting solution to a problem most major web-based companies face – processing power and capabilities.

The chips by Altera aren't new and have been around for some time, but they're slowly being used more by bitcoin miners and even some Wall Street firms due to many advantages over 'ordinary' processors. The customization now available to Microsoft has enabled them to build a super-search network called Catapult (derived from the project codename). The 1,632 servers each have a combination of a single Intel Xeon processor and a card with the Altera FPGA chip.

The new system essentially takes search queries from bing and offloads the work to the FPGAs, which are custom-programmed for the processing work required to calculate in which order search results are displayed. While speed increases and capacity are good things overall, this won't mean Bing will suddenly "seem faster" to consumers using the front-end web interface, but it will enable Microsoft to cut its running costs in half and reduce energy consumption.

"If all we were doing was improving Bing, I probably wouldn't get clearance from my boss to spend this kind of money on a project like this," noted Peter Lee, the head of Microsoft Research. "The Catapult architecture is really much more general-purpose, and the kinds of workloads that Doug is envisioning that can be dramatically accelerated by this are much more wide-ranging.

Microsoft isn't the first company to look at increasing capacity and efficiency with regards to its web services. Both Facebook and Google have been looking at improvements the companies can make on hardware, including low-powered ARM processors.

Project Catapult is just another cool concept being explored at Microsoft Research, which has not yet failed to surprise us with the end results.

Source: Wired

If Microsoft has its way, smartphone battery life could last up to a week at some point in the near future. That's the claim from a team member at Microsoft Research who stated this week that longer battery life can be obtained by making some software and design tweaks to current smartphones.

Speaking at the MIT Technology Review's Digital Summit in San Francisco this week, Microsoft researcher Ranveer Chandra pointed out that it has taken 15 years for the density of batteries to double. He says there are other ways to extend battery life right now rather than wait for advances in that technology.

One method that Microsoft has experimented with is putting in two smaller lithium-ion batteries inside a smartphone, rather than one larger battery. The idea is that one of the smaller power packs could be used to generate a larger current when there is an application that needs the extra power, like a game. The other battery could run at a lower current for when the smartphone is in idle mode.

Chandra says that prototypes that have been built with this dual battery design have seen battery life last as much as 50 percent longer compared to the single battery method.

Another method that's being tried out is called E-Loupe. Chandra says this involves installing software on a smartphone that can find apps that are using a lot of battery power, even when they are not being used, and either shut them down or slow their activity.

There's certainly a lot that could be done to increase battery use in smartphones and other mobile devices, and hopefully some of these methods, such as the ones that are being developed by Microsoft, will find their way into the consumer market sooner rather than later. And, of course, there are things like the screen and radios that take up the majority of the juice in day-to-day use — those are still going to need some doing.

What kind of battery life are you getting from your Windows Phone?

Source: MIT Technology Review

Microsoft Research has published a project on its website for a low-cost electric field sensing concept. This allows for a transparent and thin receiver to detect 3D finger and hand tracking, combined with in-air gestures on mobile handsets. It's a cool implementation, which can be utilized in a compact form factor that is resilient to ambient illumination.

Everything designed by the team has been possible thanks to off-the-shelf chips that eliminate the requirement to develop custom electronics to achieve similar results. As well as the physical electronics, Microsoft Research has also presented a learning algorithm for mapping from signal measurements at the receivers to 3D positions. Check the video for a visual walkthrough.

So why is this concept better than similar implementations? There's the low-cost factor, as well as resilience to ambient light and the fact Microsoft can perform everything in a more compact form factor. Then you have high frame rate sensing (at around 200hz) and low power consumption. Microsoft is also working on gestures and keyboards.

Remember when we joked about Jedi hand gestures and Windows Phone with the Glance screen? The force is strong with this one.

Source: Microsoft Research

Microsoft is no stranger to advancing computing technologies, as they’re one of the largest employers of computer science PhDs in the world through their Microsoft Research initiative. Microsoft Research is concerned with evolving today’s technologies to be better, not necessarily inventing new categories. Now, according to All about Microsoft’s Mary Jo Foley, that’s about to change.

Foley reports from her sources that a Microsoft Research Special Projects group has been formed, and it’s headed by former DARPA innovation boss Norman Whitaker. The group is reportedly focused on "disruptive technologies that could benefit the company and society" and it sounds a lot like Google X, which is Google’s advanced research division. That group works on crazy ideas like drones, self-driving cars and balloon-powered internet.

What exactly the group will come up with is not too clear, though Microsoft certainly has the resources – in terms of money and manpower – to make a competitive dent against Google, who is aggressively developing next-generation technologies.

Microsoft themselves have declined comment on the research division, though the term ‘Special Projects group’ is referenced in a recent job description from the company.

Read more at All About Microsoft.

If you don't love Microsoft Research then you don't love ice cream sundaes or anything else good in the world, because who else is busy figuring out how to make Windows Phone scan faces and build 3D models? So what if they call it "Skynet UI", what bad could come of this?! Zhiwei Li, Richard Cai, and Jiawei Gu are even sharing their work on the web, making sci-fi look just a little more real. Here's the abstract:

Video above. If you want all the scientific details and a ton more pictures, hit the link below. Then tell me — how awesome would this be as part of Windows Phone next?

Source: Microsoft Research

Update: Microsoft has now pulled the page and videos

While there's a lot to love about live tiles in Windows and Windows Phone, there's one element that's been missing: interactivity. Sure, they'll refresh with your latest notifications, but all you can do is tap on them to open the respective app. Microsoft Research is aware of this limitation, and is working actively to supercharge live tiles with interactive elements.

The gist of Microsoft Research's interactive tiles concept is that you can tap on the tile to expand its height into a miniature window in the start screen. For email, for example, it displays a list of your emails, and tapping one will open that specific email in the email app. There's an interactive live tile for the calculator as well, letting you perform quick calculations right from the start screen. Interactive live tiles can even live in the multitasking sidebar, letting you, for example, browse your OneDrive files and drag an item straight from that into your working app.

Thanks to Travis for the video!

The potential applications for these interactive live tiles are many, though there's no time frame for when we might see them actually hit Windows and Windows Phone (certainly it will be a substantial update to both the OS and SDKs).

It's a really cool concept, but we want to know: what do you want to see from interactive live tiles?

Source: Microsoft Research (1), (2) Via: Microsoft-News.com, Thanks to Jagar for the tip!

Microsoft’s WorldWide Telescope computing software was released in February of 2008 by the company’s Research division to display astronomical sky maps. Imagery from the software is provided by the Hubble Space Telescope along with a collection of earth-bound telescopes. The idea for the software, which was originally presented at a TED Conference, is now returning to its roots as a recent conference shows the power of WorldWide Telescope coupled with the Oculus Rift.

Imagine standing in the middle of the universe, tilting your head around to experience the glory that is besotted upon you by the billions of celestial bodies in the Milky Way Galaxy. This year in Vancouver, that idea became as close to accessible virtual reality as it even has been.

TED attendees were able to strap on the Oculus Rift and enjoy a guided tour of the cosmos – close ups of the International Space Stations and trips into deep space. In addition to viewing space, a quick flight through the neurons of the human brain were in order and, in our opinion, would have gone well with any song from the Inception soundtrack. The experience was curated in a mind blowing 3D, and although we are unable to show that version, you can check out the 2D version of what attendees witnessed below.

Originally, Amy Robinson, the Creative Director of Eyewire, wanted to display 3D neuron models upon a “large computer screen and allow users to manipulate them with their hands”, but after viewing the technology brought forward by Oculus Rift – he had to have it.

Microsoft’s WorldWide Telescope program has collected data from sources such as NASA, JAXA, ESA, and many others to make the cosmos an explorable endeavor for all. Since the software was launched six years ago, over twelve million people have experienced the once unimaginable.

While Microsoft is known as the company behind Windows, Xbox, and Surface, their Research division is carving our research that is allowing us to explore the universe like no experience ever before.

Google may be mapping the streets, but Microsoft has its eyes on the cosmos.

To check out WorldWide Telescope for yourself, click here to download it at no cost.

Source: Microsoft

Microsoft Research is looking into white space frequencies, that we already know from an exploration venture kicked off by UK telecommunication regulator Ofcom. So what exactly are white spaces? Just in case you're confused thus far, they're essentially parts of the frequency band that aren't actively being used by digital TV or wireless systems. Making use of airwaves that are currently unused would open up new possibilities for a number of applications, which participating organisations are collaborating to work towards perfecting.

In the US, Microsoft Research has been working on white space exploration for some time now. The team has been able to install a chip on devices (including smartphones) to take full advantage of free parts of the spectrum available. Wireless data usage is increasing globally with more and more hardware connecting to the Internet. White space can even provide quicker access speeds for devices compared to standard wireless networks you use at home and work today (2GHz and 5GHz).

The Xbox team actually utilises a wireless protocol that helps deliver high throughput and low latency – essential for online gaming.

To address this problem, a protocol was designed that prioritizes gaming traffic in a way that gives it a higher chance of getting delivered within a specified period of time without affecting the experience of other devices in the home.​ Ranveer Chandra from Microsoft Research took some time to talk about why they're looking into white space, how it can be useful for consumers and what the company has been able to achieve thus far.

It's interesting because the team at Microsoft Research has a number of challenges that have to be addressed. Since 2010, increasing battery life has been among these challenges (actually, you could say it's an ambitious mission), leading the team to investigate in new types of battery, how the operating system can improve efficiency, as well as installed apps and games. Then you have radio usage – think about syncing emails while the screen is turned off. As an example, the radio turns on, email is processed with the CPU and even after everything has completed, the radio remains turned 'on' for some time.

They're looking at numerous aspects of reducing energy usage in mobile hardware both internally and externally. I strongly urge you to head on over to the Microsoft Research website (link below) and read through the published article for more details – ​it's interesting stuff.

Source: Microsoft Research

If you are a fan of the cosmos, than you should be well aware of Microsoft Research’s WorldWide Telescope computing program. WorldWide Telescope allows users to fly through the known universe as astronomical sky maps and a 3D modeled environment is rendered. Originally announced at a 2008 TED Conference in California, the application still continues to be listed as “beta”, but has attracted over 1.5 million active users.

Today, as a celebration of the software’s fifth anniversary, WorldWide Telescope version 5.0 is now available to download for anyone dreaming of space exploration. The new release itself is also a new milestone and includes new features and datasets to enhance the user experience.

The underlying rendering system that creates the 3D models have been redesigned to achieve what Microsoft calls a “cinematic experience”. In addition, new controls allow users to control their exact movements and fly through the stars with precision and ease. Lastly, WorldWide Telescope can now import high resolution models to make your experience even better; you won’t be left empty either – the software includes a “high-fidelity” model of the International Space station.

For the official comment from the Microsoft Research team detailing the new features, you can give the quote below a read.

For more information on WorldWide Telescope 5.0 and to download it, you can visit the official Microsoft Research site by clicking here.

Who has been using WorldWide Telescope to explore the cosmos? Who plans on downloading the application today for the first time and trying it out?

Source: Microsoft

Developed by Microsoft Research FUSE Labs, Socl — pronounced social — lets you create, collect, and share stuff you love. From rich visual collages to short animated media and memes, Socl gives you a creative outlet through posts that take seconds to create, collect, and share on Socl, as well as other social networks.

Microsoft Research has just released the companion app for Socl for Windows Phone. Prior to this release, the Socl website was the only way to post or share content from your mobile device.

The app gives you the ability to quickly create image collages and animated memes, and share them with your friends and family. You can also organize content into collections and manage your posts within the app. The app gives you notifications about community activity on the content you like.

In the brief time I spent with the app, I found that it isn’t a smooth experience and I lost a couple posts that appeared as if they went through. Clearly, there are some issues that need to be ironed in the upcoming updates.

You can download the free companion app for Windows Phone 8 devices from the Windows Phone Store. If you are on Socl already, it’s a great app to create and share content, and if you aren’t, the app might just be an interesting incentive for you to have a look. Let us know how you like the app.

Source: The Fire Hose

Microsoft is taking its Kinect technology to a whole new level. We've already looked at how the company is attempting to integrate its product into retail, but Microsoft Research is also tapping into sign language. Numerous videos have been released showing off how the Kinect Sign Language Translator is able to interpret sign language and translate it.

The technology works both ways (wouldn't be such a good conversation otherwise, right?), but this alone shows just how useful the Xbox Kinect is when not used to keep fit or play video games.

How does the technology work? Sign language is detected, captured and translated to text while speech is rendered as visual signs for the hard hearing to see on-screen. Being mastered in Asia, the technology currently supports 300 Chinese sign language words out of a total of 4,000.

Check out the video below to see an overview on the project and how the technology works:

Explaining the scope of the project, Guobin Wu, Research Program Manager, Microsoft Research Asia, wrote the following in a blog post on MSDN:

​This technology can prove useful in many situations and Wu plans to make the technology available outside the lab. According to the program manager, there are more than 20 million people in China who are hard of hearing, who join an estimated 360 million around the world. We look forward to seeing further progress made with the project.

Head on over to the Microsoft Research website for more details and be sure to check out the blog posts over on MSDN (part 1) (part 2). via: The Next Web

If you’re running both Windows Phone and Windows you’re probably like us in that you love seeing the same app for both platforms. There’s something about that unified design and similar functionality that just makes us giddy. So even if we’re late to the party, we’re happy to see Microsoft Research’s Network Speed Test app on Windows 8.

A handful of weeks back we saw Network Speed Test hit the Windows Phone Store. You can now grab the app in the Windows Store. They both share a similar design and feature set. Which is a good thing if you’re looking for a simple app to check the speed of your network. Here’s what you can measure with the app:

• Network Delay
• Download Speed
• Upload Speed

In snap. Or whatever you call it in Windows 8.1

In addition to those three variables. You can also see some more info about your current network. Things like connection type, network name, internet status, host name, access point BSSID, authentication, encryption, and a history of your results.

The app is put out by Microsoft Research. Using servers around the globe they’ll check your connection speed. It’s a good way to help keep your ISP and carriers honest about their advertised service. It’s also handy because Microsoft collects a few characteristics of the data that they’ll hopefully use to improve their understanding of network quality and availability. And to all the folks out there with tinfoil hats on, Microsoft can’t connect the data the app sends to you.

If this is something you want on your Surface or desktop be sure to head on over to the Windows Store to grab it.  It's a free app so you've got nothing to lose.

P.S. I'm at a coffee shop. My speeds are normally a little faster than that ;)

Although we now have an official SpeedTest.net app for Windows Phone, after what seemed like an eternity of not having one, options are still good for users and we like today’s new offering.

The app comes by way of Microsoft Research and is simply called ‘Network Speed Test’ designed for Windows Phone 8 devices. The app is straightforward and very clean looking, with the user having to merely tap “Start Test” to let the now familiar process begin. Users are then presented with upload/download speeds, latency (network delay), max jitter and packet loss. Other network information is also provided by sliding over, as well as user history.

The app also has a second use, one for Microsoft:

An interesting idea and a great way to collect data from users about, well, data usage and speed over various network types. Microsoft has been focusing heavily on this area as of late, especially with such unique services as Data Sense (which is expected to go wide with the GDR2 OS update this summer), browser compression and more.

While the app is not as robust or fancy as Speedtest.net’s app (it also lacks the ability to share one’s results) it’s still a great option for those looking for a solid, comparison service to measure their network efficiency.

Pick up Network Speed Test from Microsoft Research here in the Store. Thanks, Rod H., for the tip!

BLINK is a fun little camera app that came out of a summer project at Microsoft Research. It was demonstrated during the lead up to the release of Windows Phone 8 and was eventually released to the Store, receiving numerous updates over the past few months to improve things.

Today, version 2.0 has landed bringing with it a bunch of new features and new functionality. In short, it has basically become a ‘cinemagraph’ app now in addition to being able to grab the “perfect shot” as before.

Head past the break for the full change log and our quick video hands on for a tour of the new features!

Changelog

• Camera settings - change camera settings such as scene mode, exposure, white balance and ISO in capture mode
• Animation - Quickly set the motion range for animation in addition to selecting the best shot after capture
• Sharing - Share the animations to BLINK.so.cl, Facebook, or Twitter
• In-app viewing - View the animations in the in-app history, wait for a moment and they start animating!
• Web gallery - From the in-app history, view your shared BLINKs in the web gallery
• Save another - Your BLINKs are always saved within the app. Come back and save another shot to camera roll or change the animation range via "edit" in the in-app history

Dare we say, it looks like Microsoft took a page from Nokia’s book with their Cinemagraph app (though Nokia’s is still more advanced with its selective animations). Blink 2.0 builds off of the previous version nicely by giving users more control over the camera’s settings, which should make photo buffs happy.

With the animated BLINKs on board, one needs a way to share them with others (much like Nokia’s Cinemagraph issue), and so Microsoft has created a BLINK.so.cl server to upload the creations and to enable sharing with others. Unfortunately, things are still being “turned on” as our link brings us to a non-working “Private Beta” page, but that’s all backend stuff that can be sorted.

Anyway, head to the Store and pick up BLINK 2.0 for Windows Phone 8 here. Let us know in comments what you think!

Today Microsoft released the Bing Translator App for Windows 8. Just like the Translation application on your Windows Phone, you can now easily convert between 40 different languages using your PC.

Bing Translator app is based on years of Microosft Research and advanced machine learning. The application can translate text, visual images, and content you find on the web. Simply type in what you would like translated, point the tablet’s camera for an augmented experience, or use Windows 8’s share charm to translate content anywhere on your PC.

In adddition, Microsoft offers several language packs to download for offline use of the application including Chinese simplified, French, German, Italian, and Spanish. According to the company, more language packs will be coming in the near future.

You can grab the app for free here.

Let us know what you think – has Bing Translator ever saved you when you needed a language translated?

Source: Bing Blog

Want to experience beautiful awe inducing views of Mount Everest on your PC or Tablet? Now you can, thanks to Microsoft’s partnership with GlacierWorks. The newly launched HTML5 based site allows viewers to see the changes Mount Everest and the greater Himalayan regions have faced over the last 86 years. There is no better day to launch the project than today, the 60^th anniversary of the historic first ascent to the summit of Everest.

The site compares images taken by explorer George Mallory in 1921 to recently taken images of the region. The Microsoft Internet Explorer Team, Microsoft Research, and developers at Pixel Lab have worked hard to make the experience a reality. The teams hopes that the images will allow people to finally understand the important impact climate change has on the world.

Breashears, founder of GlacierWorks, commented on the recent partnership and its ability to show the negative impacts of global warming:

You can visit the newly launched site with IE to take advantage of special touch features. In addition, other technological highlights include a gigapixel panorama viewer, which uses the HTML-5 based viewer from Bing to render panoramas containing billions of pixels, and Microsoft’s Rich Interactive Narrative (RIN) technology. Built by Microsoft Research, RIN, is a presentation system for building “nonlinear, interactive and cinematic narratives that seamlessly stitch together various media”.

You can join in on the adventure here by trekking through the mountain ranges and discussing the impact global warming and other environmental changes have on our future.

Do you use IE or is Chrome/Firefox your default browser? (Personally, I use Chrome on my ThinkPad and IE10 on my Surface)

Sources: Microsoft Green Blog, The Fire House

At TechFair 2013 in Washington D.C., Microsoft showed off an abundance of high-tech projects; the company states that the technology being designed by its research division, allows a glimpse into the future of technology. World class scientists working on the Redmond campus showed off how they could be an asset to some of society’s biggest challenges.

Fred Humphries, Microsoft VP of U.S. Government Affairs, stated that:

Take a look below for some of the technologies Microsoft flaunted:

Automated Problem Generation for Education: Microsoft’s Intelligent Tutoring System (ITS) showed off the benefits of Computer-aided education. The system can generate a personalized workflow to help students with problem solving. The system is able to help with logic problems, sentence completion, procedural mathematics, algebraic proofs, and more. Click here to learn more.

Kinect Fusion: Research techniques for quickly and affordably recreating accurate 3D renderings of people and objects. The system takes advantage of a six depth of field position from a depth sensing camera, such as Microsoft’s Kinect. Click here to learn more.

Project “GeoFlow” for Excel: GeoFlow is an Excel plugin that allows a 3D visual representation of data that can then be shared with others. This project is the only one available for download; you can grab the preview here (Excel 2013 required).

Real-Time, 3D Scene Capture and Reconstruction: Another project devoted to creating 3D renderings, this one captures several color images to build a high resolution “voxelization” of the surface. The project takes advantage of the Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) to power the process. Click here to learn more.

SandDance: A web based information visualization system that uses 3D hardware acceleration to “explore relationships between hundreds of thousands of items”.  SandDance focuses on natural user interaction techniques such as touch screens and Kinect. Click here to learn more.

ViralSearch: Microsoft wants to be able to track the latest hits and newest meme. ViralSearch is an attempt to look at large quantities of data and decide what may be “going viral”. Click here to learn more.

SketchInsight: An interactive whiteboard for “storytelling” that uses data in real time. Simply sketch a chart and it will be auto populated with relevant data. (This is one of my favorite, so check out the video) Click here to learn more.

Please note: If you are using our Windows Phone Central App, there is no Silverlight support on the platform and you will not be able to view the videos. Sorry. =/

Sources: The Fire House, Microsoft Research Blog

Tomorrow is the announcement for Microsoft’s next-generation console, the successor of the company’s world famous Xbox 360. The boys up in Redmond have been secretive about their new entertainment beast (most likely using the Cone of Silence in meetings), but a few rumors have slipped through allowing us to take a shot at what we might expect tomorrow on stage.

VGLeaks let loose a collection of documents showing the hardware specifications of the next Xbox; these leaks were shortly after confirmed by Kotaku and it is believed that they are the final production specs. The console is said to be packed with an 8 core CPU running at 1.6 Ghz, 8 GB of DDR3 RAM, and a “large” internal hard drive for storage.

Kotaku also received reports that the next Xbox will integrate a Blu-ray disc drive for your high definition viewing enjoyment. For those of our readers still holding onto their HD DVDs – it is REALLY time to let go now.

On the accessories front, not much is expected to change for the Xbox 360 controller; Microsoft has a solid design and it is one of the best we have seen on a game console to date.

Due to the major “Xbox 720” leak during the summer of 2012, we do know quite a bit about the upcoming Kinect 2 that Microsoft has planned. The unit has the standard upgrades we would expect: higher accuracy, better imaging, improved microphone, and an improved camera. In addition, the unit is expected to include dedicated hardware processing, hand recognition support, and the ability to track up to four players at once (time to buy a bigger living room).

On the interface front, we expect to see an updated dashboard with Live Tiles, to match the Windows 8 experience, and tighter cable TV integration.

One of the worst rumors going around that we can hope to put to death tomorrow is “always-on DRM”; this would require the console to always be connected to an active internet connection while playing games. Obviously, this idea has sparked an outrage and I can only hope for Microsoft’s life that this rumor is debunked onstage.

Besides an upgrade in hardware and improvements with Kinect, we aren’t expecting any revolutionary new experiences. Microsoft has been teasing a project known as IllumiRoom, which uses a Pico projector and Kinect to turn your room into a Star Trek style holodeck; as of now, not only does the project seem too expensive to implement, but it will most likely remain on the shelves of Microsoft’s Research division for a while longer.

We will have all of our questions revealed tomorrow at 10AM PST. Follow a live stream of the event on your Xbox 360’s dashboard or tune in on your Windows Phone 8 device by following these instructions!

What do you hope to see from tomorrow’s announcement?

Most importantly… WHO IS EXCITED?!

Sources: VGLeaks, Kotaku [1,2], The Verge [1,2,3], Edge, 

Microsoft Research is both an amazing establishment and frustrating one. It’s amazing because of the work they do - the future of technology being built today! It’s frustrating though because it can take years before we see the effects of such projects in commercial applications. With that understanding, it’s curious to see what Bing Now brings to the table.

Bing Now is a demonstration app by Microsoft Research that utilizes your phone’s microphones to gauge how crowded a particular restaurant or bar is at the moment. The idea behind it is that a user will check-in via Foursquare and during that process, a 6-10 seconds audio clip is recorded and analyzed for information. With 80% accuracy, the Bing Now app was able to predictably estimate the amount of people at the establishment and more. Users can also listen to the sample on their phones to hear it themselves.

The reason for such a project should be obvious: should you wish to head out to a bar or for some food, depending on you are feeling you many want “loud and lively” or “quiet and subdued”.  With Bing Now, you can filter results of restaurants or pubs based on your criteria, which include occupancy, chat, noise and music levels.

It is certainly an enticing idea, though being an MSR project we wouldn’t expect this to land in our mobiles for another year or two. It will also require the user to consent to having their phone used as a sampling device, which could impact privacy, data and battery life.

Still, if we had to guess where social check-in apps and services were heading, Bing Now seems to be on the right track.Make sure you watch the embedded video to see how it all works.

Source: Microsoft, MIT Technology Review; Thanks, anon, for the tip!

Are you an avid movie buff, or a hardcore gamer? Do you own a HDTV and enjoy a high definition experience? Microsoft Research aims to further enhance your visual pleasure when watching the screen with IllumiRoom - a concept that uses peripheral projected illusions for interactive experiences. Forget 3D glasses, this involves subtle projections without any potential eye-strain.

The proof-of-concept system augments the environment where the television is situated with projected visualisations to enhance traditional viewing experiences. IllumiRoom uses a Kinect for Windows camera and a projector to blur the lines between on-screen content and the environment in attempt to combine the virtual and physical elements together.

The system can alter the appearance of the room, induce apparent motion, extend the field of view and enable entirely new video gaming experiences. Checking out the above video walkthrough will illustrate some of the functionality of IllumiRoom at work with Xbox titles making use of the new real estate.

IllumiRoom uses the geometry of the room (captured by Kinect) to adapt the projected visuals in real-time without the requirement for custom pre-process of the graphics. The footage in the video demonstration is captured in its entirety with no post-production effects. Microsoft is already working hard to take video gaming to the next level, and IllumiRoom could fit right in.

Imagine a potential future where you can not only speak to the console, see yourself on-screen in an augmented reality, but also have the environment used to extend the field of view in videos games, providing even more detail for the viewer to take in each second. Doors are also opened up to adapting said environment to cater for different gameplay - hosted events could construct specific rooms for different video game types or titles to immerse the attendee into the experience.

The possibilities with this technology are exciting. We'll attempt to take a peek at the project which has made an appearance at CES 2013.

Source: Microsoft, YouTube