With the latest Project Malmo competition, we’re calling on researchers and engineers to test the limits of their thinking as it pertains to artificial intelligence, particularly multi-task, multi-agent reinforcement learning. Last week, a group of attendees at the 14th Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Interactive…
Microsoft HoloLens is the world’s first self-contained holographic computer. Remarkably, in Research Mode, available in the newest release of Windows 10 for HoloLens, it’s also a potent computer vision research device. Application code can not only access video and audio streams but can also at…
Generating realistic images from a text description is a challenging task for a bot. A solution to this task has potential applications in the video game and image editing industries, among many others. Recently, researchers at Microsoft and elsewhere have been exploring ways to enable…
Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality each has distinct advantages when it comes to bringing digital capabilities into our everyday lives. Everything users see, including the environment and every object can be controlled and changed. This also means that what users see doesn’t necessarily mirror the…
The notion of an “uncanny valley” is well known in robotics[1]. This is when increasing the realism of a robot’s human-like appearance can lead to feelings of unease—or even revulsion—as a robot becomes more and more (but never quite fully) human-like[2]. While this uncanny valley…
It was a love of toys, a shared appreciation for the intrinsic beauty of physical objects and a recognition of their absence in the daily computer interactions of a world that currently spends most of its time gazing at and touching two-dimensional glass that propelled…
Last week’s rollout of SwiftKey 7.0 is the intelligent keyboard app’s biggest update since joining Microsoft in April 2016. Available on both Android and iOS, SwiftKey 7.0 debuts Toolbar, an expandable menu found under a new '+' sign on the left of your prediction bar…
Today's update from Microsoft debuts a new feature for its intelligent camera app, Microsoft Pix, that works with LinkedIn, showcasing the productivity capabilities of the AI-powered camera. The new Business Card feature for iPhones makes it quick and easy for you to add contacts, not…
In the last decade, mobile gaming has grown into a huge industry. According to Newzoo, the global mobile games market will reach $46.1 billion in 2017, a 19.4% increase from the year before. Players can enjoy amazing gaming experience on mobile devices due to the…
Much of the hype around Virtual Reality, or VR, has focused on immersive gaming and entertainment, but the technology also has profound implications for enhancing the way we work. Imagine the perfect office environment: multiple large displays, proper lighting, free from distractions and isolated from…
Microsoft has released two new features with today's update to Microsoft Pix for iOS, an app powered by a suite of intelligent algorithms developed by Microsoft researchers to take the guesswork out of getting beautiful photos and videos. The first of these features, Photosynth, helps…
A technology standard that helps deliver ultra-high definition video to everything from smartphones to stadium displays will receive an Emmy® Award on October 25. The 2017 Primetime Emmy Engineering Award, from the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, was announced Wednesday. “HEVC is about twice…
