Most of us can only dream of having the perfect personal assistant, one who is always there when needed, anticipating our every request and unobtrusively organizing our lives. Cortana, the new digital personal assistant powered by Bing that comes with Windows Phone 8.1, brings users…
Visiting Eric Horvitz at Microsoft Research headquarters in Redmond, Wash., is a full-service experience. At the building’s first-floor bank of elevators, situated on a busy corridor, a “smart elevator” opens its doors, sensing that you need a ride. When you arrive on the third floor,…
Today, February 5, 2014, marked the kickoff workshop for the Swiss Joint Research Center (Swiss JRC), a collaborative research engagement between Microsoft Research and the two universities that make up the Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology: ETH Zürich (Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich, which serves German-speaking…
By Rob Knies, Managing Editor, Microsoft Research In 1825, Michael Faraday, the great British physicist/chemist, had a brilliant idea: Let’s find a way to get children more interested in science. He proceeded to inaugurate the Christmas Lectures, hosted annually by the Royal Institution of Great…
By Suzanne Ross, Writer, Microsoft Research Go is more than a game. It spans centuries, it's integrated into religion, politics, and business, it's been embraced by poets and warriors, and it's considered one of the great artificial intelligence challenges today. Thore Graepel, a scientist in…
By Suzanne Ross, Writer, Microsoft Research How would you feel if a co-worker barged into your office every few minutes to blurt out updates about their life or project? You might tell them that you are busy, but the damage has been done. You've been…
