Tag Archives: Microsoft Research

Microsoft Research wants to automate your house, introduces HomeOS

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Ever wondered if you could control your house's climate, security, and appliances -- along with your PCs and peripherals -- using Microsoft software? That day may soon dawn, as its Research arm has started testing its home automation software, called HomeOS, in twelve domiciles over the past few months. The budding system views smartphones, printers and air conditioners as network peripherals, controlled by a dedicated gateway computer. The project even has a handful of apps in play, which perform functions like energy monitoring, remote surveillance and face-recognition. This growing list of applications, available through a portal called "HomeStore", will allow users to easily expand their system's capabilities. So how does it all work out in the real world? Head past the break, and let Redmond's research team give you the skinny.

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Microsoft Research wants to automate your house, introduces HomeOS originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 30 Apr 2012 02:03:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Distro Interview: Microsoft Principal Researcher Bill Buxton

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The Distro Interview: Microsoft Principal Researcher Bill Buxton

Bill Buxton has spent most of his career getting between humans and computers. While his initial focus was on music and digital instruments, that eventually led to an interest in human-computer interaction, and pioneering work with multitouch systems and other user interfaces. He worked with the famed hotbed of innovation Xerox PARC in the late 1980s and early 90s, and was later Chief Scientist for software firm Alias Wavefront before claiming the same title at SGI Inc. when that company acquired the former in 1995. After a time running his own Toronto-based design and consulting firm, he moved on to Microsoft Research in 2005, where he continues to serve as the organization's Principal Researcher.

We recently had a chance to pick his brain and get his thoughts on a range of issues, including state of design at Microsoft, the future of natural user interfaces, and whether we're really entering a "post-PC" era.

Continue reading The Distro Interview: Microsoft Principal Researcher Bill Buxton

The Distro Interview: Microsoft Principal Researcher Bill Buxton originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 23 Apr 2012 14:21:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Windows Phone OS mod speeds up app load times, knows you’ll play Monopoly on your break (video)

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Experimental Windows Phone mod Falcon speeds up app load times, knows you were going to do that

Microsoft Research has revealed some of its latest work into mobile app optimization -- and it's called the contextual solution, Falcon. Fast App Launching with Context aims to improve "key OS services" including memory management, scheduling and security. It does this by using location and sci-fi-sounding "temporal access patterns" -- when you use the app -- to pre-load programs before you've even decided to use them, which dramatically reduces perceived loading delay. A learning algorithm baked into the Windows Phone OS mod also improves its behavior and predictive powers as you use it. In the project's own tests, users were apparently saving up to 35 seconds on a single app launch. There's no news on whether the developmental mod will find its way into future Windows Phone iterations, but if our phone just knew to pre-load Kinectimals each morning -- the only thing that gets us through those 7am commutes-- we'd be more than willing to give it a go.

Continue reading Windows Phone OS mod speeds up app load times, knows you'll play Monopoly on your break (video)

Windows Phone OS mod speeds up app load times, knows you'll play Monopoly on your break (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 17 Apr 2012 14:12:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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