Microsoft Research Community

Last weekend I updated the ROM of my HTC Touch (Sprint Network) mobile phone. I have been waiting for this ROM upgrade for quite some time. I will break this part of the post into installation, few of the features, and end with my summary. As and when I get to additional features, I will add [...]

Sweet announcement at E3 - Netflix movies can be streamed on Xbox 360. This feature will make me move away from Blockbuster online, and get a Netflix account. The advantage of sitting at home, and getting access to the Netflix collection of movies that can streamed online far out weighs the ability to...

Great bit of coverage on Gizmodo for some force-sensing work coming out of our team in Cambridge. Microsoft: Touchscreens Old and Busted; Force Sensitivity Is New Hotness“Researchers have come up with a prototype of their force-sensing tech that’ll let you apply different kinds of force to...

A little bit of coverage of the HCI 2020 report launch on the World Service’s “Digital Planet” radio show. Here’s the points during the show where our coverage begins: 14:10 - Being Human segment begins 14:49 - Interview with Gary Marsden begins 15:50 - Interview with Abi Sellen...

A year ago Abi and Richard helped organize a gathering of 40+ “luminaries” from the field of Human-Computer Interaction to debate how the relationship between people and technology might change in the next decade. That event has resulted in a really great read, a report entitled “Being...

Three hundred fifty computers. Two hundred twenty-five monitors, Almost a mile of computer cable. More than 6,500 attendees. Almost seven months of preparation. Three days of technical setup. Four hours of tear-down. About 500 researchers, most of them sporting forest-green, short-sleeved polo shirts...

OK, consider me dazzled. This afternoon, I got to spend a few minutes with Yuval Peres , principal researcher within Microsoft Research Redmond's Theory Group . In viewing the Theory Group's TechFest demos over the past few years, it has occurred to me that computational theory occupies a space...

I mentioned the other day that I had run into Feng Zhao , principal researcher in the Networked Embedded Computing group, who was looking particularly happy at the moment. Well, Feng has been demonstrating the reason for his delight over the past three days: a set of small, wireless sensor devices, branded...

Andrew Herbert , managing director of Microsoft Research Cambridge , was busily reading e-mail when I passed him in the hall a few minutes ago, so I doubled back and asked him to provide a brief statement about the value of TechFest for his lab and for the larger organization. His response: "The...

I just ran into Phil Fawcett, who had an idea seven years ago that became the original TechFest, which has since become Microsoft Research's signature event. The fact that I could barely manage to squeeze through the throngs to get to Phil speaks volumes about his foresight--and the power a simple...