Radio and TV channels, mobile communications, GPS, and emergency communications are just a few examples of applications that occupy the airwaves. The radio spectrum is a finite resource, but demand for bandwidth is accelerating. As a result, the telecommunications industry is facing what the U.S.…
These are exciting times for networking researchers. New developments in data-center networking—and the new efficiencies those advances offer—are making this one of the hottest fields in computing. Major figures in networking and communications research gather in Hong Kong from August 12 to 16 for SIGCOMM…
Springtime in Paris this year sees the Association for Computing Machinery’s 31st Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI) in full swing from April 27 through May 2, welcoming experts and students from more than 60 countries. A large contingent of researchers from Microsoft…
By Rob Knies, Managing Editor, Microsoft Research In Boston on April 17, in the Great Room of the Massachusetts State House, Victor Bahl, director of Microsoft Research Redmond’s Mobile Computing Research Center (MCRC), will be introduced as one of six recipients of the University of…
By Janie Chang, Writer, Microsoft Research Microsoft Research Redmond researchers Hrvoje Benko and Scott Saponas have been investigating the use of touch interaction in computing devices since the mid-’00s. Now, two sharply different yet related projects demonstrate novel approaches to the world of touch and…
By Douglas Gantenbein The amount of data created and stored in the world doubles about every 18 months. Some of that data is distinctive—but by no means all of it. A PowerPoint presentation might start bouncing around a work group, and within a week, many…
By Rob Knies, Managing Editor, Microsoft Research By any standard, Kinect for Xbox 360 has proved to be a technological sensation. Kinect, the controller-free interface that enables users to interact with the Xbox 360 with the wave of your hand or the sound of your…
By Douglas Gantenbein, Senior Writer, Microsoft News Center When Microsoft Research hardware engineer Steve Hodges was developing SenseCam—a wearable digital camera that automatically takes pictures that track the wearer’s activities—he needed months to create a workable prototype. “It took me six months to get something…
How do you take a concept from research to product? In the case of the Microsoft Touch Mouse, it took a collection of prototypes, collaboration between transatlantic teams, and a lot of user testing. It also helps when the research that launched the project won…
By Rob Knies, Managing Editor, Microsoft Research Multicore and many-core processors represent the future of computing. Concerns with power consumption and heat management have limited the ability of chip manufacturers to continue to provide more processing power via faster clock speeds. Consequently, to deliver the…
By Douglas Gantenbein, Senior Writer, Microsoft News Center People love their smartphones—and they love to play games on them. On common smartphone software platforms, including Windows Phone, games are among the most popular applications and constitute the vast majority of downloads. “Games are killer apps…
By Rob Knies, Senior Editor, Microsoft Research It always helps to be prepared. Just ask Ivan Tashev. A principal software architect in the Speech group at Microsoft Research Redmond, Tashev played an integral role in developing the audio technology that enabled Kinect for Xbox 360…
