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Microsoft Shows Off Future Product Tech

Posted by Soulskill on from the still-waiting-on-lcars dept.

adeelarshad82 writes "Microsoft opened a portion of its fifth TechFair to Silicon Valley residents, demonstrating more than 15 technologies, which included everything from real-time translation to mobile-to-mobile networking to improved image stitching. The top two that really stood out were the translating telephone, which actually used no 'telephone' at all — it was a test to discover how well Microsoft's speech algorithms could interpret speech, translate it, and then speak the translation using text-to-speech algorithms — and Manual Deskterity, a new paradigm for a user interface; a right-handed user's left hand, for example, can be used for coarse manipulations of objects, while the right can be used for fine manipulation, such as with a pen. It sounds a bit simplistic, at least at this stage. Since one of the charters of Microsoft Research is that the work should eventually be moved to product teams, there's a good chance that the prototypes will eventually be made available to the public at large."

7 of 61 comments (clear)

  1. Will it become real?? by Itninja · · Score: 3, Funny

    Two words: Courier Tablet

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    I judt got a nre Kinesis keybiartf so please excusr ant egregiou typos.
    1. Re:Will it become real?? by clang_jangle · · Score: 3, Funny

      winfs!

      Yeah, microsoft's "previews of future tech" are entertaining. As many dog-and-pony shows are.

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      Caveat Utilitor
    2. Re:Will it become real?? by node+3 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      That's what I thought was so funny about this part:

      Since one of the charters of Microsoft Research is that the work should eventually be moved to product teams, there's a good chance that the prototypes will eventually be made available to the public at large.

      There's pretty much zero chance of that research reaching the public.

      There's no doubt that MS Research gets into some interesting stuff, but very little of it ever sees the light of day. The main reason for this is precisely because they do get into some interesting stuff. It's really difficult to make a product out of something that uses one hand for coarse actions and the other for fine actions, or to build an actual, working universal translator.

  2. Re:One of these words does not belong by WrongSizeGlass · · Score: 3, Funny

    Can you figure out which one?

    I'm going to guess Innovative because it's the only one that starts with a vowel? Or maybe Revolutionary because it uses all the vowels (even the sometimes vowel)?

  3. Re:A Three Hour Tour... by DAldredge · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Quite a few actually. See http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/

  4. Re:One of these words does not belong by Hoplite3 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Revolutionary.

    Microsoft research does good work. Some of the ideas that come out of there are definitely cool and creative, like surface. Others are new and innovative, like the tablet. What Microsoft can't seem to do is to move ideas from research into products. There's a big institutional roadblock that prevents them from pushing new, innovative, creative, and cool ideas out the door. The result: no revolution.

    And yeah, I think it will kill them in the long run if they can't fix that problem.

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  5. Re:One of these words does not belong by WrongSizeGlass · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Singularity was an interesting project. I only wish that they would have shepherded it along until it was closer to a commercial product.