Microsoft's Mirage Table Augmented Reality Teleconferencing System

BBC News - MirageTable: Microsoft presents augmented reality device

Microsoft has shown off an augmented reality system that allows users at different locations to work together on tabletop activities, sharing objects which they can both handle.

The MirageTable was demonstrated at a conference in Austin, Texas and is outlined on the firm's research site.

Source: BBC News - MirageTable: Microsoft presents augmented reality device

MirageTable Teaser: Freehand Interaction on a Projected Augmented Reality Tabletop - YouTube

MirageTable is a novel augmented reality system which enables instant digitization of physical objects, correct 3D perspective views, and interaction using bare hands without gloves or trackers. One can also, use MirageTable to enable 3D teleconferencing which recreates the experience of sitting across the table from someone remote and playing with them in a physically realistic way.

Source: MirageTable Teaser: Freehand Interaction on a Projected Augmented Reality Tabletop - YouTube

DailyTech - Microsoft Introduces Augmented Reality System "MirageTable"

MirageTable consists of a curved, white piece of plastic that sits in front of the person using it. A 3D video projector, which is an Acer H5360, beams images onto the plastic while a Microsoft Kinect depth camera sensor tracks the movements of each person and object at each end. The entire system is powered by two computers connected by a network.

The users are also required to wear shutter glasses (NVIDIA 3D Vision) while using MirageTable so that they can see the image being projected in 3D.

"In our system, the user can hold a virtual object, move it, or knock it down, since all virtual and real objects participate in a real-world physics simulation," said the Microsoft research team. "The unique benefit of this set-up is that two users share not only the 3D image of each other, but also the tabletop task space in front of them."

Source: DailyTech - Microsoft Introduces Augmented Reality System "MirageTable"

MirageTable: Freehand Interaction on a Projected Augmented Reality Tabletop - YouTube

Source: MirageTable: Freehand Interaction on a Projected Augmented Reality Tabletop - YouTube

Related

• MirageTable
• Hrvoje Benko's Research Webpage
• One Per Cent: Microsoft's MirageTable allows AR teleconferencing
• Microsoft Revises Furniture Of The Future With Mirage Table - Technology News - redOrbit
• MirageTable augmented reality device from Microsoft | Ubergizmo
• Microsoft MirageTable uses Kinect to create interactive 3D workspaces | The Verge

Microsoft's Lifebrowser

Lifebrowser: Data mining gets (really) personal at Microsoft

(PhysOrg.com) -- Microsoft Research is doing research on software that could bring you your own personal data mining center with a touch of Proust for returns. In a recent video, Microsoft scientist Eric Horvitz demonstrated the Lifebrowser, which is prototype software that helps put your digital life in meaningful shape. The software uses machine learning to help a user place life events, which may span months or years, to be expanded or contracted selectively, in better context.

Source: Lifebrowser: Data mining gets (really) personal at Microsoft

Microsoft Builds a Browser for Your Past - Technology Review

Lifebrowser's interactive timeline looks like a less polished version of Facebook's recently introduced Timeline feature. However, Horvitz's design predates Facebook's and doesn't rely on a user to manually curate it. Photos, e-mails, and other documents and data points appear in chronological order, but Lifebrowser's timeline only shows those judged to be associated with "landmark" events by artificial intelligence algorithms. A user can slide a "volume control" to change how significant data has to be if it is to appear on the timeline. A search feature can pull up landmark events on a certain topic.

Source: Microsoft Builds a Browser for Your Past - Technology Review

Lifebrowser - YouTube

Machine learning is being applied in new ways to understand people and to assist them with daily work and activities. Presented at Microsoft TechForum 2012, Lifebrowser leverages machine learning and reasoning to help people to navigate through large personal stores of their own information, appointments, photos, and activities, including their history with searching and browsing on the Web over days, months, and years. The prototype learns about and infers "memory landmarks" -- events and activities that people would find important and memorable. The system builds a timeline around inferred landmarks, and allows users to zoom in on details of the timeline around inferred landmarks with a "volume control." The system also enables users to perform search and retrieval of content in the context of the landmarks.

Source: Lifebrowser - YouTube

Related

• Microsoft Research demonstrates Lifebrowser - Next at Microsoft - Site Home - TechNet Blogs
• Microsoft's Lifebrowser learns what's important so you can browse through personal milestones | The Verge
• Eric Horvitz's Homepage
• Models of Human Memory - Microsoft Research

Microsoft Project Gustav -- The Digital Painting Experience

Clipped from: Microsoft PressPass - Image Gallery:

MSR Gustav Gustav is an eXtreme Computing Group project aimed at producing painting software that is easy to use, leverages the multiple cores of future computers, and provides a natural, immersive user experience.

Clipped from: Project Gustav: Immersive Digital Painting - Microsoft Research

Project Gustav: Immersive Digital Painting

Typically the experience of painting on a computer is nothing like painting in the real world. Real painting is actually a very complex phenomenon – a 3D brush consisting of thousands of individually deforming bristles, interacting with viscous fluid paint and a rough-surfaced canvas to create rich, complex strokes. Until fairly recently, the amount of computing power available on a typical home computer simply hasn't been sufficient to attempt simulating such a real-world painting experience in any detail. Project Gustav aims to leverage the increasing power of the PC and ever faster graphics processors and combine that with a natural user interface, to bring a rich painting experience to a wide audience including hobbyists and professionals alike. The result is a prototype system that contains some of the world’s most advanced algorithms for natural painting.

Clipped from: YouTube - Microsoft Project Gustav

Clipped from: YouTube - Project Gustav: Immersive Digital Painting

Sources:

1. Microsoft PressPass - Image Gallery:
2. Project Gustav: Immersive Digital Painting - Microsoft Research
3. YouTube - Microsoft Project Gustav
4. YouTube - Project Gustav: Immersive Digital Painting

Related:

1. Project Gustav: Microsoft Research Updates MS Paint In a Huge Way - Project gustav - Gizmodo
2. Video: Microsoft's Project Gustav
3. Project Gustav to push aside Microsoft Paint (video)
4. Neowin.net - Microsoft's "Project Gustav", paint pictures on your PC with a brush
5. Design Spartan : actu, inspiration, tutoriels et ressources sur le graphisme, le webdesign, le digital painting...

Microsoft Mobile Surface Computer

Clipped from: Video: Microsoft 'Mobile Surface

A Microsoft Research project dubbed "Mobile Surface" links a mobile phone to a camera and projector, letting people interact with a screen projected onto a tabletop by moving their hands in the air above it.

It's named after the company's Surface tabletop computer, and while the portable version doesn't provide nearly the screen resolution of its much larger cousin, Mobile Surface is notable in that it allows for three-dimensional control by sensing not lateral movement but also the distance between the hands and the surface.

Clipped from: Microsoft Demos 'Mobile Surface' And On-The-Fly Phone Call Translation

The project is an implementation wherein Microsoft plans to allow you to use any tabletop surface as an interacting device with the help of a mobile projector and camera setup. The demo shows:

• A camera, projector and mobile phone, a projection of the mobile phone display is made on a tabletop, where a user interacts.
• Ability to increase or decrease volume by moving your hand in the air.
• Playing a drum set by moving hands in the air or hitting the projection of the drum set on a table.

Clipped from: YouTube - Mobile Surface Computer

Mobile Surface Computer

Clipped from: Mobile Surface - Microsoft Research

Mobile Surface

It is a novel interaction system for mobile computing. Our goal is to bring Microsoft Surface experience to mobile scenarios, and more importantly, to enable 3D interaction with mobile devices. We do research on how to transform any surface (e.g., a coffee table or a piece of paper) to Mobile Surface with a mobile device and a camera-projector system. Besides this, our work also includes how to get 3D object model in real-time, augmented reality and multiple-layer 3D information presentation.

 

 

Clipped from: Prototype Microsoft Mobile Surface PC one-ups iPhone

The prototype Mobile Surface device combines the features of Microsoft's Surface touchscreen computer along with the gesture-based interface of its coming Project Natal game control system for the Xbox 360.
Mobile Surface is also reminiscent of the 'Minority Report' interface demoed by startup PrimeSense at CES earlier this year.

Sources:

1. Video: Microsoft 'Mobile Surface'
2. Microsoft Demos 'Mobile Surface' And On-The-Fly Phone Call Translation
3. YouTube - Mobile Surface Computer
4. Mobile Surface - Microsoft Research
5. Prototype Microsoft Mobile Surface PC one-ups iPhone

Related:

1. Microsoft to show off new 'Mobile Surface' at TechFest 2010 | All about Microsoft | ZDNet.com
2. Microsoft Mobile Surface | Geeky Gadgets
3. Microsoft Mobile Surface - @Baekdal
4. YouTube - Microsoft Mobile Surface Demo

Google's Open-Source Chrome OS

Clipped from: Google joins battle with Microsoft with Chrome operating system - Times Online

Google joins battle with Microsoft with Chrome operating system

Google Chrome OS is a development of its “Chrome” web browser. The search giant initially aims to put the new system on small low-cost computers known as “netbooks”, which have been selling better than more powerful PCs. Google said that it believed the software will eventually be used on PCs as well.

Clipped from: Official Google Blog: Introducing the Google Chrome OS

[...] today, we're announcing a new project that's a natural extension of Google Chrome — the Google Chrome Operating System. It's our attempt to re-think what operating systems should be.

Google Chrome OS is an open source, lightweight operating system that will initially be targeted at netbooks. Later this year we will open-source its code, and netbooks running Google Chrome OS will be available for consumers in the second half of 2010. Because we're already talking to partners about the project, and we'll soon be working with the open source community, we wanted to share our vision now so everyone understands what we are trying to achieve.
[...]

Google Chrome OS will run on both x86 as well as ARM chips and we are working with multiple OEMs to bring a number of netbooks to market next year. The software architecture is simple — Google Chrome running within a new windowing system on top of a Linux kernel. For application developers, the web is the platform. All web-based applications will automatically work and new applications can be written using your favorite web technologies. And of course, these apps will run not only on Google Chrome OS, but on any standards-based browser on Windows, Mac and Linux thereby giving developers the largest user base of any platform.

Clipped from: Google Drops A Nuclear Bomb On Microsoft. And It’s Made of Chrome.

Google Drops A Nuclear Bomb On Microsoft. And It’s Made of Chrome.

[...] This is Google dropping the mother of bombs on its chief rival, Microsoft. It even says as much in the first paragraph of its post, “However, the operating systems that browsers run on were designed in an era where there was no web.” Yeah, who do you think they mean by that?
[...]
What Google is doing is not recreating a new kind of OS, they’re creating the best way to not need one at all.

So why release this new OS instead of using Android? After all, it has already been successfully ported to netbooks. Google admits that there is some overlap there. But a key difference they don’t mention is the ability to run on the x86 architecture.

Clipped from: Gizmodo - Google Chrome OS for PCs: Look Out Windows and OS X - Google Chrome OS

Google Chrome OS for PCs: Look Out Windows and OS X

[...]

Still, Windows and OSX will always have a spacious home in the computer world, undoubtedly. Some apps will always require native architecture, and the businessmen, code-monkeys, graphic designers, video editors and other connoisseurs of nuanced computing would be foolhardy to try and work strictly in the cloud.

But the final hurdle for Google to overcome is easy, accessible online storage. Will they be able to go after Amazon's S3 cloud servers? And perhaps more importantly, will they be able to offer the service for free? If they can let us really extend our hard drives into the cloud, look out. Chrome OS will be a force to be reckoned with.

Sources:

1. Google joins battle with Microsoft with Chrome operating system - Times Online
2. Official Google Blog: Introducing the Google Chrome OS
3. Google Drops A Nuclear Bomb On Microsoft. And It’s Made of Chrome.
4. Gizmodo - Google Chrome OS for PCs: Look Out Windows and OS X - Google Chrome OS

Related:

1. Google Announces Chrome OS - PC World
2. Meet Chrome, Google’s Windows Killer
3. Sources: Google OS lives (and it's coming to a netbook near you) - Ars Technica

Microsoft's SecondLight Surface

Clipped from: InfoNIAC

Second Light - the Second Generation Multi-touch Computer from Microsoft

At the South by SouthWest Festival visitors were told that in just two or three years they will witness the appearance of a second generation Surface - a computing gadget from the software giant Microsoft.

[...]

Surface represents a multi-touch computer that resembles a table.

The device features a flat screen that is able to read multi-touch gestures. Surface may also read content found on printed material that is placed onto the screen. This became possible with the help of five cameras installed inside the device.

Clipped from: YouTube - Microsoft Surface - The Possibilities

Microsoft Surface - The Possibilities

How does Surface work?
At a high level, Surface uses cameras to sense objects, hand gestures and touch. This user input is then processed and the result is displayed on the surface using rear projection.

What are the key attributes of surface computing?
Surface computing has four key attributes:

• Direct interaction. Users can actually "grab" digital information with their hands and interact with content by touch and gesture, without the use of a mouse or keyboard.
• Multi-touch contact. Surface computing recognizes many points of contact simultaneously, not just from one finger, as with a typical touch screen, but up to dozens and dozens of items at once.
• Multi-user experience. The horizontal form factor makes it easy for several people to gather around surface computers together, providing a collaborative, face-to-face computing experience.
• Object recognition. Users can place physical objects on the surface to trigger different types of digital responses, including the transfer of digital content.

Clipped from: BBC NEWS | Technology | Microsoft Surface in action

Microsoft Surface in action

Clipped from: Microsoft's SecondLight technology revealed - News - PC Authority

Microsoft's SecondLight technology revealed

Dual projection devices within the screen allow hidden images to exist underneath photographs, which can be rotated and zoomed to show the hidden information in context.




The way to reveal the hidden image or text data is to wave a transparent material over the SecondLight surface.




Related:

Second Light - the Second Generation Multi-touch Computer from Microsoft - Technology - InfoNIAC
BBC NEWS | Technology | Microsoft Surface in action
Microsoft's SecondLight technology revealed - News - PC Authority
Microsoft Surface

Microsoft Unveils Live Mesh

clipped from news.bbc.co.uk BBC News Updated every minute of every day Microsoft unveils its web vision Microsoft has lifted the lid on a new web service called Live Mesh, designed to connect a multiplicity of devices and applications online. Live Mesh connects devices and services online and offline clipped from www.youtube.com Microsoft Live Mesh clipped from www.mesh.com Add your devices to Live Mesh Explore your Live Desktop Add and share folders Stay informed with news clipped from www.informationweek.com Live Mesh uses a 2-MB client, called the Mesh Operating Environment, to replicate file folders to cloud storage and to sync and share content with other devices and people designated by the user. When users sign on to the Live Mesh site, Mesh.com, a "device ring" shows the devices connected to the service. The site lets users manage the information they're sharing and syncing. A Live Remote feature provides remote access to devices.

Video: Live Mesh with David Treadwell

Related:
Live Mesh Tech Preview
Windows Live Dev : Introducing Live Mesh
Live Mesh - The Race To Become Web 2.0's Next Edison | NetworkWorld.com Community
Redmond | Redmond Report Article: Live Mesh Not Yet Live
Microsoft's Live Mesh: Web Fabric With Loose Threads -- Windows -- InformationWeek
Technology News: Data Management: How Live Mesh Will Reinvent Microsoft
Live Mesh: We talk again with David Treadwell - LiveSide - News blog

MediaCart -- Shopping with video advertisements

clipped from skypedia.org Amazing : New Shopping Trolley Designed in conjunction with computer giant Microsoft, the latest supermarket trolley will not only guide you to the exact shelf for the item you want, but will also help you keep a check on your diet. Manufacturer MediaCart says the device could be in UK stores by 2009. It will be able to download your shopping list - including lists recorded from your previous visits - and plot the quickest and easiest route around the store accordingly, pointing out where items are as you go. clipped from www.mediacart.com Brand Marketers can now reach shoppers at the Point-of-Purchase with powerful, targeted video advertising. Advertisements can be targeted based on the cart location as well as loyalty card demographics and prior shopping history. MediaCart® was developed together with retailers, CPGs and consumers as a technological solution to today’s retail realities.

Damn Small Linux (DSM) or Windows Vista -- A comparison.

Two tables clipped from a nice article in Blorge.com comparing the minimum system requirements and the functionality of Damn Small Linux (DSL), a small Linux distribution with Microsoft's Windows Vista.

Requirements

(click image to enlarge)

Features

(click image to enlarge)

Damn Small Linux crushes Windows Vista’s min requirements - TECH.BLORGE.com

Related:
DSL information
DistroWatch.com: Damn Small Linux
Windows Vista: Home Page
Windows Vista - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Microsoft patents worker monitoring system (2)

clipped from technology.timesonline.co.uk Microsoft seeks patent for office 'spy' software Microsoft is developing Big Brother-style software capable of remotely monitoring a worker’s productivity, physical wellbeing and competence. clipped from angelahayden.blogspot.com Microsoft's Electric Shock System for Sleepy Workers I recommend that they add a system that can shock sleepy workers. I can't tell you how many times the guy in the next cubicle falls asleep and snores on the job. He also makes too many body sounds and always has a running nose. His sniffling is driving me crazy. Microsoft should do something about quelling body noises. Perhaps, Microsoft could just hook workers up to a urine bag and a feeding tube and they could work continuously without any breaks. I also hate thinking on the job so Microsoft should just put a brain implant in workers so they can daydream all day while their brain is doing work.

Related:
LinkNotes: Microsoft patents worker monitoring system

Microsoft patents worker monitoring system

clipped from technology.timesonline.co.uk Microsoft seeks patent for office 'spy' software Microsoft is developing Big Brother-style software capable of remotely monitoring a worker’s productivity, physical wellbeing and competence. clipped from appft1.uspto.gov Monitoring system Abstract The invention relates to a stand-alone video recording, playback and Monitoring system. It has network switches, non-volatile storage devices, IP cameras, video servers, and NTSC cameras. The system uses communication channels that are WAN/LAN based and can be hard-wired or wireless and has a flexibly implemented watchdog to detect, for example, hardware and power failure as well as other failures in the system. clipped from www.foxnews.com Labor unions said they fear that employees could be dismissed on the basis of a computer's assessment of their physiological state. Wireless sensors could read "heart rate, galvanic skin response, EMG, brain signals, respiration rate, body temperature, movement facial movements, facial expressions and blood pressure," the application states.

Related:
The Press Association: New technology to monitor activity
FOXNews.com - Microsoft System May Monitor Workers' Brains, Bodies - Science News | Science & Technology | Technology News
United States Patent Application: 0080005626
Microsoft seeks patent for office 'spy' software - Times Online

Microsoft's mind reading patent -- The future of advertising?

The art of predicting customer behaviour

In August 2007, software giant Microsoft filed a patent application for a system that would allow it to access thoughts. The patent describes pattern-recognition techniques that can be applied to electroencephalograph (EEG) signals – a measure of electrical activity in the brain – to determine what cognitive state the subject is in.
[...]
For one thing, its presence in the computer games market opens up intriguing possibilities: it could use brainwaves as a control mechanism.

There are other possibilities too. Microsoft has an avowed commitment to taking on search engine giant Google in the lucrative online advertising market. Now that is one area where a little mind reading could go a very long way.

Microsoft's mind reading patent | Information Age

via: The Debris Field: Microsoft's mind reading patent
related: United States Patent Application: 0070185697
LinkNotes: Search results for mind control

From Vista to Ubuntu

ZDnet author moves from Vista to Ubuntu

clipped from community.zdnet.co.uk

mattloney

Matt Loney's Blog

Sunday 21 October 2007, 11:26 PM

Why I've moved from Vista to Ubuntu 7.10

Posted by mattloney

I've been using Windows since it was battling for desktop supremacy with GEM in the early 90s. In the mid 90s I spent several years producing newspapers on Apple Macs. Since the late 90s I've dabbled with Linux, but there have always been compelling reasons to return to, or stick with, Windows. No more, for two reasons: Vista, and Ubuntu 7.10 (ala Gutsy Gibbon).

About Vista

* Why is Vista so slow (part 1)? [...]
* Why is Vista so slow (part 2)? [...]
* Why is Vista so slow (part 3)? [...]
* Why does the screen blank out every time I try to run a program? [...]

[...]

About Ubunto

Ubuntu has the slickest installation I have yet found in any OS.
Ubuntu makes it supremely easy to install extra software packages.
Ubuntu has a wonderfully useful and responsive 3D desktop, [...]
Ubuntu generally works just fine on my Santa Rosa laptop
[...]

Why I've moved from Vista to Ubuntu 7.10 >> Matt Loney's Blog >> mattloney's Blog at ZDNet UK Community

related:

• Vista versus The Gutsy Gibbon - Ubuntu 7.10 >> Mixed Signals >> Rupert Goodwins's Blog at ZDNet UK Community
• ZDnet moves from Vista to Ubuntu and I’ve removed Ubuntu - VISTA.BLORGE.com

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