Microsoft Research Community

Touch tech

rb.trends — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 13:17:19 GMT

Sweep Technology touch interface for hearing aids “Starkey’s new “Sweep Technology” replaces all the traditional hearing aid buttons and dials with a touch surface that allows users to adjust volume and change settings with a sweep or Read More......(read more)

Getting back

rb.trends — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 13:09:48 GMT

A Tweet Unleashes Vitriol on a User in Britain “In the realm of Twitter insults, it was at the far end of mild. “Much as I admire and adore the chap, they are a bit … boring,” a Twitter user called brumplum wrote Saturday, speaking of the Read More......(read more)

Fast robotics

rb.trends — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 11:14:56 GMT

Someone Stop The Fastest Robot Packager in the World at Once “For some reason, I can’t stop looking at the frenzy Adept Quattro robopackager, which reaches more than 300 cycles per minute” Gizmodo Read More......(read more)

Custom skins

rb.trends — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 11:09:54 GMT

Infectious Now Lets You Print Your Own Designs For Custom Wall Decals, iPhone Skins, And More “until now, customers could only choose from the Infectious catalog of art work. That offers a pretty good selection, but obviously being able to craft Read More......(read more)

Genetic decisions

rb.trends — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 11:03:06 GMT

Behavioral Genetics in the Court Room “A court in Italy has shortened the prison sentence of a convicted murderer due to the prisoner’s heightened genetic predisposition for violence, according to Nature News. Specifically, the appeals court Read More......(read more)

Sharing storytime

rb.trends — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 07:59:22 GMT

Storyplay: Nokia and Sesame Street create video conferencing in a book “Researchers from Nokia’s Research Center have been working with the Sesame Street Workshop to develop an interactive learning experience that grandparents and young children Read More......(read more)

Sharing your time

rb.trends — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 07:55:20 GMT

Nebul.us: A New Way To Visualize And Share How You’re Spending Your Time Online “By default, the site will present your recorded browsing history in a donut shape, with each site visited represented by a colored band. The shape and position of these Read More......(read more)

Playing with icons

rb.trends — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 07:53:32 GMT

Urban Cursor by Sebastian Campion “A 3 dimensional oversized computer cursor (pointer), was placed on a square in Figueres, Catalunya during the Ingràvid cultural festival. Visitors to the square could move the cursor, a GPS tracked the movements Read More......(read more)

Social populations

rb.trends — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 07:52:38 GMT

The next step for Twitter Lists — Entire countries “Social media consultants Simplyzesty started using Twitter Lists to list blogs. However, a brainwave has lead them to take Twitter Lists to their logical conclusion: creating lists of Twitter users Read More......(read more)

Road power (concept)

rb.trends — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 07:51:39 GMT

Carbon Zero Road Block System by Park, Jaeyong “This system is composed of several elements. The only one you’re going to see is the blocks on the road. As you drive over these blocks, the pressure from your vehicle pushes the blocks down, creating Read More......(read more)

Object detection

rb.trends — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 07:49:55 GMT

Software to detect objects inside videos “Researchers at the University of Missouri (MU) are developing software that would enable computers to perform video analysis tasks, such as alerting emergency services if a video surveillance camera detects Read More......(read more)

Dissolving electronics

rb.trends — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 17:23:15 GMT

Implantable Silicon-Silk Electronics “By building thin, flexible silicon electronics on silk substrates, researchers have made electronics that almost completely dissolve inside the body. So far the research group has demonstrated arrays of transistors Read More......(read more)

Made from media

rb.trends — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 17:15:33 GMT

Sonic Fabric Neckties Are Actually Playable “The music may be horrible, but if you rub a tape head over these ties you can actually hear jumbled sound collages recorded from the NYC metro system. This is possible because the ties are 50% audio cassette Read More......(read more)

Robot advice

rb.trends — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 16:30:19 GMT

MIT Develops Witty Robot Sidekick (For Your Car) “Essentially an adorable little robot that sits on your dashboard and talks to you, the AIDA is being built to recognize human facial expressions and emotional queues. Basically, they’re creating Read More......(read more)

Place-sensitive guides

rb.trends — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 16:28:31 GMT

Mobile Magic – First Disney Parks Mobile App Details “While wandering the parks, your location will be indicated by a white circle. Then it’s simple to scroll through content and find it on the map via a “getting there” option. The map zooms out Read More......(read more)

Photo sculptures

rb.trends — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 16:26:52 GMT

Fractured Reality: Bizarre 3-D Photo Sculptures “For each sculpture, Gwon took hundreds of photographs of a single model and layered them over mannequins for a result that is sometimes true to the form of the model, and sometimes altogether different Read More......(read more)

Your own wall-drawing robot

rb.trends — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 17:28:22 GMT

The Muralizer Draws Art on Your Wall Automatically “You plug it into your computer and load it up with the vector art of your choosing, hang it up on a string on the surface you want to draw on, and let it do its things. If it’s sold as a Read More......(read more)

Wall control

rb.trends — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 17:26:05 GMT

Interactive Wallpaper: The Living Wall Project “Magnetic and conductive paint on the surface of the wallpaper combined with touch sensors, LED’s and Bluetooth technology will allow users to touch decorative elements of the wall to turn on lamps Read More......(read more)

Single propellors

rb.trends — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 17:23:48 GMT

Micro-vehicle Imitates the Winged Maple Seed “The new “robo-seed” can fly and hover stably using just its single twisting propeller. The researchers accomplished this by separating the carefully-shaped wing and body components of the Read More......(read more)

Measuring your sway

rb.trends — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 17:18:29 GMT

The ear alarm to prevent falls “The Ear Worn Activity Recognition Sensor, or e-AR as it is known, can be used to find out how stable the elderly are on their feet, by measuring the amount the patient sways. Wearers carry out a series of tasks such Read More......(read more)

Real vs. virtual drivers

rb.trends — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 16:35:32 GMT

Video gamers to play for ‘real’ “Real Time Race has been developing a system that places players side-by-side with the drivers in real races. The firm’s technology would map the circuit just before the race so the virtual track Read More......(read more)

Picking colours

rb.trends — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 16:32:14 GMT

ColorJive Helps Visualize Room Colors Before Painting “Upload a picture of your room—an evenly lit photo works best—and begin applying colors from the available palette. You can use the enormous palette from COLOURLovers to access a nearly infinite Read More......(read more)

Small, focussed print runs

rb.trends — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 16:30:48 GMT

New lease of life for newspapers “The Newspaperclub team, all of whom have backgrounds working online, are creating a website that will allow people to design and print small runs of newspapers. The newspapers themselves will be printed at existing Read More......(read more)

Light efficiency

rb.trends — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 16:27:04 GMT

Wrapping Solar Cells around an Optical Fiber “The advantage of a fiber-optic solar-cell system over a planar one is that light bounces around inside an optical fiber as it travels along its length, providing more opportunities to interact with the Read More......(read more)

Controlling electrons

rb.trends — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 16:25:58 GMT

New spintronics breakthrough paves the way to faster computing “A team of researchers from the University of Cincinnati have achieved control of the spin of electrons traveling on a wire by simply regulating an electrical voltage. This is a major Read More......(read more)