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MIT imaging chip creates natural-looking flash photos
Mobile image processing in itself isn't special when even high dynamic range shooting is virtually instant, at least with NVIDIA's new Tegras. A new low-power MIT chip, however, may prove its worth by being a jack of all trades that works faster than software. It can apply HDR to photos and videos through near-immediate exposure bracketing, but it can also produce natural-looking flash images by combining the lit photo with an unassisted shot to fill in missing detail. Researchers further claim to have automatic noise reduction that safeguards detail through bilateral filtering, an established technique that uses brightness detection to avoid blurring edges. If you're wondering whether or not MIT's work will venture beyond the labs, don't -- the project was financed by contract manufacturing giant Foxconn, and it's already catching the eye of Microsoft Research. As long as Foxconn maintains interest through to production, pristine mobile photography won't be limited to a handful of devices.
Microsoft Blink Windows Phone Lens app gives users perfect photographical timing (update)
It's no secret that Microsoft and Nokia are aiming to make Windows Phone the OS of choice when it comes to mobile photography, whether through optical image stabilization or the Lens app lineup. The latest camera augmentation code to come down the pike is Blink, an app built by Microsoft Research that brings a special burst mode to WP8 devices. Blink works by snapping a series of 16 shots each time you take a photo, and lets you choose which picture's worth keeping. It's an an excellent tool for those looking to take action photos, but there's a catch -- the pictures taken by Blink are of less-than-impressive quality, with a max resolution of 800 x 488. That said, if such an imaging safety net sounds good to you, there's a video showing it off in action after the break, and you can grab the app at the source below. Update: It seems that the images Blink produced on our Samsung ATIV Odyssey are not representative of the app's true capabilities. One of the app's creators reached out to tell us that Blink is set to output images that are 1280 x 720, and the glitch we unwittingly discovered is being investigated.
Microsoft Research head Craig Mundie to retire in 2014
Microsoft Research boss Craig Mundie will step down in 2014, after working over 20 years in both Microsoft's security and R&D departments. The research arm has been run by Mundie since 2008, where he's been responsible for some pretty interesting projects, from early glimpses of Redmond's future to real-time multilingual translation. The day-to-day running of the department will be transferred to former chief technical strategy officer Eric Rudder, while Mundie will continue to advise CEO Steve Ballmer. According to the Seattle Times, the move is line with Microsoft's plans to focus on mobile and web-based developments, while the new role might give the veteran Mundie a little more time to work on his Japanese.
Microsoft Research crafts wrist-worn device that tracks hand gestures in 3D space (video)
A team led by researchers at Microsoft's UK-based R&D lab has crafted a system that tracks the full 3D pose of a user's hand without the need for a pesky glove. Dubbed Digits, the Kinect-inspired rig latches onto a user's wrist and utilizes a diffuse infrared light, IR laser, camera and inertial measurement unit to track fingertips and just five key points of a hand. Leveraging a pair of mathematical models developed in-house after studying the mechanics of the human hand, the group uses the captured data to extrapolate the position of a user's paw. The team envisions the solution as a supplement to touch-based interfaces, a method for eyes-free control of mobile devices and as a gaming controller that could work in conjunction with Kinect or similar systems. In its current state, the device is composed of off-the-shelf parts and needs to be tethered to a laptop, but the ultimate goal is to create a mobile, self contained unit the size of a wrist watch. Hit the break to catch a video of the setup in action or tap the second source link below for more details in the group's academic paper.
Microsoft applies for high-performance touchscreen patent
Remember when Microsoft got us all salivating with a proof-of-concept demo that took touchscreen lag from 100ms to 1ms? Well, Redmond is protecting the product of its tireless research by applying for a patent. The claim focuses heavily on the use of a predictive system that takes an educated guess as to where you're going to move next, and does some serious preprocessing to minimize lag. The result is a smooth moving UI, so long as you don't surprise the predictive algorithms. Do something completely unanticipated and all those preloaded animations must be flushed, resulting in some graphical stutter. We wouldn't get too excited just yet, though, the broad patent, seems like it's a long way out from landing in a smartphone or tablet. The clip we saw in March (embedded after the break) is little more than a white splotch that follows your finger. But, if even some of this tech makes into future Windows products, expect your touchscreen experience to be a much smoother one.
Intellectual Ventures' Nathan Myhrvold defends patent trolling, calls tech industry immature
Intellectual Ventures' CEO and founder Nathan Myhrvold, who previously spent some 14 years at Microsoft Research, took the stage here at D10, and as predicted, his interview with Walt Mossberg was quite the invigorating one. You may know the man and his company for its vicious patent trolling -- or, what appears to be patent trolling. In essence, a lot of its business comes from acquiring patent portfolios, and then licensing and / or suing companies to "enforce" them. Naturally, Nathan has a radically different perspective than most sane individuals on the matter, insisting that the system isn't necessarily broken, and that "making money from enforcing patents is no more wrong than investing in preferred stock." The talk centered predominantly around how Intellectual Ventures operates, what it does, and if its CEO feels that the "rat's nest of lawsuits" -- as Walt put it -- was getting out of control. Despite saying that his company has hundreds of people working on new inventions to help deliver medicines in Africa (in response to a question from the crowd on whether his outfit was truly helping people), he confessed that suing to enforce patents was simply another method of capitalism working. Care to take a ride on the crazy train? Head on past the break for a few choice quotes from the interview.
Microsoft Research team shatters data sorting record, wrenches trophy from Yahoo
Bruise inducing high-fives, anyone? They're handing them out in Redmond, according to one mildly injured researcher, after breaking a data sorting record Yahoo set in 2009. The ruckus surrounds a benchmark called MinuteSort, which measures how much data can be sorted in 60 seconds. Microsoft's Distributed Systems group utilized a new file system architecture, dubbed Flat Datacenter Storage, over a full bisection bandwidth network to burn through the competition. Not only did the nine-person crew best the old record nearly by a factor of three, it gave itself a handicap -- sorting 1,401 GB of data at 2 GB/s over a remote file system, forcing the system to crunch data at a slower speed than the technique is capable of. It's not all about bragging rights, however, Bing has its eye on the newfangled file system in hopes of boosting its RPM. Microsoft suspects the tech could also pick up the pace of machine learning and churn through large data sets in a jiffy. You can catch Microsoft Research's detailed explanation in all its glory at the source. Update: Commenter Mark Streich points out that while 2 GB/s may sound fast, it's certainly not speedy enough to sort 1,401 gigabytes in a single minute. To achieve that performance, simultaneous input and output speeds could hit 2GB/s on each computer used.
Microsoft Research's MirageTable brings some augmented reality to your tabletop
We got a look at a holographic telepresence project from Microsoft Research earlier this week, but that's far from the only Kinect-enhanced rig it's working on these days. This setup dubbed a MirageTable was also shown off at the Computer-Human Interaction conference in Austin, Texas this week, offering a glimpse of one possible future where two people can interact with virtual objects on a table as if they were sitting across from each other (or simply do so on their own). To make that happen, the setup relies on a ceiling-mounted 3D projector to display the images on a curved surface, while a Kinect on each end of the connection both captures the person's image and tracks their gaze to ensure images are displayed with the proper perspective. You can check it out in action after the break, although some of the effect is lost without 3D glasses.
Microsoft Research wants to automate your house, introduces HomeOS
Ever wondered if you could control your house's climate, security, and appliances -- along with your PCs and peripherals -- using Microsoft software? That day may soon dawn, as its Research arm has started testing its home automation software, called HomeOS, in twelve domiciles over the past few months. The budding system views smartphones, printers and air conditioners as network peripherals, controlled by a dedicated gateway computer. The project even has a handful of apps in play, which perform functions like energy monitoring, remote surveillance and face-recognition. This growing list of applications, available through a portal called "HomeStore", will allow users to easily expand their system's capabilities. So how does it all work out in the real world? Head past the break, and let Redmond's research team give you the skinny.
The Distro Interview: Microsoft Principal Researcher Bill Buxton
Bill Buxton has spent most of his career getting between humans and computers. While his initial focus was on music and digital instruments, that eventually led to an interest in human-computer interaction, and pioneering work with multitouch systems and other user interfaces. He worked with the famed hotbed of innovation Xerox PARC in the late 1980s and early 90s, and was later Chief Scientist for software firm Alias Wavefront before claiming the same title at SGI Inc. when that company acquired the former in 1995. After a time running his own Toronto-based design and consulting firm, he moved on to Microsoft Research in 2005, where he continues to serve as the organization's Principal Researcher. We recently had a chance to pick his brain and get his thoughts on a range of issues, including state of design at Microsoft, the future of natural user interfaces, and whether we're really entering a "post-PC" era.
Windows Phone OS mod speeds up app load times, knows you'll play Monopoly on your break (video)
Microsoft Research has revealed some of its latest work into mobile app optimization -- and it's called the contextual solution, Falcon. Fast App Launching with Context aims to improve "key OS services" including memory management, scheduling and security. It does this by using location and sci-fi-sounding "temporal access patterns" -- when you use the app -- to pre-load programs before you've even decided to use them, which dramatically reduces perceived loading delay. A learning algorithm baked into the Windows Phone OS mod also improves its behavior and predictive powers as you use it. In the project's own tests, users were apparently saving up to 35 seconds on a single app launch. There's no news on whether the developmental mod will find its way into future Windows Phone iterations, but if our phone just knew to pre-load Kinectimals each morning -- the only thing that gets us through those 7am commutes-- we'd be more than willing to give it a go.
Microsoft kicks off Kinect Accelerator program to take 11 Kinect-centric start-ups to the next level
Microsoft unwittingly created quite the hacking cottage industry when it first introduced Kinect. Though it took awhile for the company to come to grips with the amazing inventions enabled by its sensor bar, Redmond eventually released Kinect for Windows. Now, the Kinect Accelerator program is here to take Kinect development even further. Kinect Accelerator is a three-month long incubator of sorts for folks with Kinect-basted start-ups. It works by providing the chosen ones with mentors from Microsoft Research, Microsoft Studios, Kinect for Windows and the Xbox team to provide support and knowledge to refine and improve their Kinect apps. Additionally, venture capitalists and entrepreneurs will be available to give advice help the teams craft business plans to help them become profitable. We had the opportunity to chat with Craig Eisler -- who heads up the Kinect for Windows team and is heavily involved with Kinect Accelerator -- about this new venture. Eisler told us that Microsoft's been planning the program since last summer after witnessing all the Kinect innovations that have been percolating organically. So, the Accelerator gives Microsoft the opportunity to find some of the best ideas and speed up their development. Microsoft wound up receiving almost 500 applicants to the program, and winnowing it down to a final 11 was no easy task -- the final 50 ideas were apparently all quite good, and the initial plan was to only take ten into the program. The 11 who made the cut hail from across the globe (US, Canada, Argentina, France, and Germany), and will receive $20,000 and office space, plus Kinect hardware and development software to get their ideas off the ground. Unfortunately, we couldn't get Eisler to tell us exactly what each team is working on, but he did say they'll benefit the medical, retail, fashion, and even farm industries when all is said and done. Specifics about the inventions will come later, once the mentors have worked their magic and the apps are closer to their final forms, so stay tuned. You can learn more about the Kinect Accelerator and the chosen teams at the source link below and PR after the break.
Microsoft demos vocal translator at TechFest 2012, uses your own dulcet tones (video)
Microsoft has demonstrated new software that can pull together real-time multilingual vocal translations using your own voice. Monolingual TTS currently handles 26 different languages, although it's not instant just yet -- it takes about an hour of training to get the experimental software acquainted with your own utterances. Demonstrated at Microsoft's TechFest 2012 showcase, the software can even mix up foreign language pronunciation of place names with directions in your native tongue. It also complements those efforts with a 3D image of your head, animating your lips along to the foreign words you'd otherwise butcher. See how an algorithm-educated floating head handles Mandarin -- and how it's all done -- right after the break.
Microsoft cuts touchscreen lag to 1ms, makes other panels look silly (video)
Have you ever noticed that there is a serious amount of lag between when you move your finger on a touchscreen and when it actually registers that input? Perhaps you haven't, but most panels and controllers out there suffer from about a 100ms delay. For taps and slow swipes that's not an issue but, as you wing your finger around the screen faster and faster (say, while quickly doodling in a painting app), the lag becomes quite apparent. The powerful minds over at Microsoft Research have figured out a way to get that delay down to a measly 1ms. Of course, there's no guarantee this tech will ever make it into a product, and the video after the break shows little more than a glowing box following a finger. Still, it's always enjoyable to see where we are now versus where we could be.
Microsoft Research's shoulder mounted system makes anything a multitouch display
Remember the nifty new 3D transparent display, augmented reality mirror, and remote sharing technology that Microsoft revealed just over a week ago? Turns out that Redmond's research arm wasn't done doling out the gadget goodies, as it's now showing off a new Wearable Multitouch Projector that turns any surface into a gesture-sensitive display. Using Kinect-style motion and depth sensing cameras in concert with a pico projector and a PC, you can tap, swipe and pinch-to-zoom to your heart's content on the nearest flat surface. It's currently a rather clunky, cabled contraption, but the touch input does appear to work pretty well, and the researchers who built it think that the tech can be miniaturized to a more user-friendly size in the future. See for yourself in the video after the break.
Microsoft TechForum unveils three research projects (video)
TechForum is a Microsoft-sponsored shindig where the company can get together, party, and then show off its latest and greatest research projects. First up we've got a transparent interactive 3D display which builds on technology from Cambridge University's HoloDesk project. Next is Holoflector, a "magic mirror" that overlays LCD projections onto your reflection. Both of these two projects rely heavily upon Kinect as more projects find the potential in the little sensor. Finally there's Illumishare, a pair of overhead projectors / cameras that share a desktop space with a colleague when you need to look at the same thing. After the break you can see all three concepts in action and you can learn a little more about each at our source links.[Thanks, Lokitoth]
Microsoft working on Vermeer, a 'touchable' 360-degree holographic display (video)
Touchable is a stretch when talking about Vermeer, but we'd definitely call it interactive. Instead of hiding the 360-degree display under an acrylic or glass dome it uses a parabolic reflector to float a 3D "object" in space and tracks hand motions with an IR sensor or Kinect. It's not unlike RePro3D, but with slightly less bulky hardware. Don't take our word for it though, check out the video after the break.
Tired of your face? Use Face Swap to try your friend's on for size
Have you ever wondered what it would be like to find your face on somebody else's body, or vice versa? Microsoft Research has finally addressed that oh-so-critical need with a Windows Phone app called Face Swap. Essentially, the free app can take an image of multiple people and trade faces with the others in the group, and then let you share the new photo on Facebook or Twitter. Of course, we're not sure the person you swapped faces with will enjoy it as much as you did, but that's the downfall of social networks, right?
Trio of Microsoft projectors lets you get quasi-physical with AR interaction (video)
You have to hand it to the tireless folks toiling away within Microsoft's Research department. They're hard at the task of making tomorrowland today's province. Perhaps spurred on by the rapturous response to their HoloDesk, the Cambridge gang's previewing yet another virtual reality, and this time it's a handheld trio. The palm-friendly devices, split up into camera, room and SLAM models, incorporate pico projectors, coaxial IR cameras, inertial measurement units (IMUs) and the company's Kinect (for the latter two only) to project augmented visions onto surrounding surfaces. If you've been honing your shadow puppetry game over the years, that oft-used skill's about to get very useful. The environmentally aware (no, not the Go Green! kind) systems allow for shadow- and touch-based interaction with the CG overlays, offering pinch functionality, icon selection and even painting -- don't worry, it's definitely removable. This neat tech hat trick could one day soon spare you a trip to IKEA, letting you test out potential decorative pieces from the comfort of your home. Unfortunately, we can't get handsy with the futuristic projectors just yet, so the video after the break will have to suffice. [Thanks, Pradeep]
Holodesk: More Kinect magic from Microsoft Research
There are a lot of conspiracy theorists at Joystiq that attribute the human race's breathtakingly rapid technological advancement to ancient aliens, claiming that world-changing inventions like polymers, optical media and the Internet have all been reverse engineered from downed extraterrestrial spacecraft. In actuality, very few modern conveniences can trace their roots back to ancient aliens; most mind-bending breakthroughs come from abstract corporate think-tanks like Microsoft Research. The lab that previously utilized a Kinect to create real-time 3D models has now developed an interactive, holographic 3D environment called Holodesk. As is demonstrated in the (strangely silent) proof of concept video above, Holodesk uses a Kinect, projector and beam splitter to create interactive holograms. In a nutshell, the Kinect watches your hands and face, tracking their movements and projecting 3D shapes onto a semi-transparent surface above your hands, tricking the eye into thinking the shapes and your hand exist on the same plane. The interface is still fairly rough, graphically speaking, but the technology itself is so solid, we're hoping it'll eventually lead to a Kinect sequel to Time Traveler.
