Microsoft Research

For those who don’t know, there’s a part of Microsoft that doesn’t get talked about as much as the software and services. However, it’s the part of Microsoft that is advancing the industry and doing extremely cool thing. What I’m talking about is Microsoft Research, which started way back in 1991 and now spans over eight locations across the world.

What Microsoft Research are dedicated to do, is research in computer science and software engineering. While this may not sound very cool in itself, this covers off everything from computational biology and environmental science through to ‘computer-mediated living’, which looks at how computers can enrich our everyday lives.

Add in things like machine learning and programming principles and tools and you can see how there are some amazing things that can come out of these places.

If you’re looking for some ideas that these guys are playing with, just have a look at Microsoft’s vision for 2019 video that they came up with a few years ago.

We thought we’d share with you a few things that the guys at Microsoft Research have worked on (or working on) that we think are particularly cool…

Path of Go

Go is an ancient Chinese board game that they say takes minutes to learn, but a lifetime to master. The game is deceptively simple, but the strategies and tactics involved with the ancient game can consume one’s life. This is the challenge that faced a small team from Microsoft Research’s Cambridge campus when they set out to create their Xbox Live version of Go, called ‘The Path of Go’.

Interestingly, ‘The Path of Go‘ is also the first Xbox game to be entirely coded in F#, another Microsoft Research project, which is an object oriented language for .Net that allows you to write simple code to solve complex problems.

UPDATE: “The Artificial Intelligence for ‘The Path of Go‘ is written in F#, but the UI and much else is written in C#. This is exactly how we envisage F# being used – some analytical components use it, and some other parts of an app, but not all.” (Thanks to Don from MSR Cambridge for the correction)

‘The Path of Go’ is available to download from the Xbox Live arcade now and will be available for Windows Phone 7 soon.

Microsoft Kinect

For those of you who haven’t heard about Microsoft Kinect for Xbox 360, it’s time to come out from that rock you’ve been living under. Since launching in November this year, Kinect has proven to be the next wave in gaming. In essence, it’s a gaming platform that enables user interaction without the use of a controller.

Microsoft Research facilities from around the world contributed the technologies that went into making Kinect something truly awesome. If you haven’t had a play with one yet, then stick it on your Chistmas list… there’s still two days after all…

AutoCollage

Released in 2008, AutoCollage is a one button way to create a photo collage with images in a folder. All you need to do is pick a folder, click a button and the rest is done for you. Something cool about AutoCollage is that with the release of Windows 7 last year, AutoCollage Touch 2009 became a pre-installed features, taking advantage of the touch and multi-touch capabilities of Windows 7.

However, if you haven’t yet upgraded to Windows 7, don’t fret, you can still download AutoCollage 2008 here.

T-Drive

I’m fairly certain that if you pitted a cabbie against a GPS system, it’s a no-brainer as to who would get there first. Cab drivers are paid to know the best and fastest routes throughout any given city. This was the thinking behind Microsoft Research Asia’s recent project, called T-Drive. The system gives users the fastest path to their destination, based on data mined from historical GPS trajectories of over 3000 GPS-equipped taxis.

Unfortunately, the system isn’t available yet, but keep an eye on the project here to see when it will be.

These are just a small selection of the cool things coming out Microsoft Research. Keep an eye on their news site and Twitter feed to keep up to date on the happenings behind some of the brightest minds in the industry.