Posted by Rob Knies Over the past year, the Center for Urban Science and Progress (CUSP), a New York City-based public-private research center created by New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg in conjunction with New York University, has advanced from creation to gaining traction in its mission of using...

Posted by Hsiao-Wuen Hon, managing director of Microsoft Research Asia In China, 2012 is the Year of the Dragon, a particularly auspicious year in Chinese culture. I am very glad to see that this also has been a good year both for Microsoft and for Microsoft Research Asia . Thanks to the efforts...

Posted by Rob Knies In this, the 100th anniversary of what is now known as the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Fellow program, four computer scientists from Microsoft Research have joined the annals of illustrious individuals who have attained the grade of IEEE Fellow....

Posted by Rob Knies Eight sentences. That’s all it took for Rick Rashid , worldwide head of Microsoft Research, to electrify a crowd of 2,000 students and faculty members in Tianjin, China, on Oct. 25 during the 14th annual Computing in the 21st Century Conference . Why did those in attendance...

Posted by Rob Knies For the past 13 years, the Microsoft Research Asia Fellowship Program has offered the most prestigious computer-science Ph.D. scholarships in the Asia Pacific region. Hundreds of students have been inspired to excel in the interim, and that reputation was underscored yet again...

Posted by Rob Knies Imagine that you walk into a store, select an item to purchase, and approach the cash register. A wireless-proximity transmitter within your smartphone detects your presence, and a facial-recognition program determines your identity. The transaction is recorded onto video, and...

Posted by Rob Knies You’re looking for a photo of a flower. Not just any photo—it needs to be horizontal in shape. And not just any flower—it needs to be a purple flower. What do you do? You could perform a conventional image search on the web. There are lots of flowers out there—lots...

Posted by Rob Knies Last August, my colleague Janie Chang wrote a feature story titled Speech Recognition Leaps Forward " href="http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/news/features/speechrecognition-082911.aspx" target="_blank">Speech Recognition Leaps Forward that was published on the Microsoft Research...

Posted by Rob Knies The term “natural user interfaces” has been in vogue in recent months, generally invoked to describe different ways that humans can interact with computing devices beyond the longtime pairing of keyboard and mouse. Surface computing is one example with its roots...

Posted by Rob Knies Recently, I wrote about Microsoft Research contributions to the new Translator App for Windows Phone , available for free download on Windows Phone Marketplace . Some of them, anyway. As it turns out, the story goes a bit deeper than the earlier post was able to convey. Since...

Posted by Rob Knies Eager for foreign travel but worried about foreign languages? Fear no more, thanks to the Translator App for Windows Phone , updated April 16 and featuring several contributions from Microsoft Research. The app, powered by the same state-of-the-art technology used in Bing...

Posted by Kevin Schofield Perhaps it’s just me, but I wince whenever my American phone or GPS tries to pronounce a French restaurant name or a Spanish street name, or the name of one of my non-American friends. While we’ve made much progress in creating text-to-speech (TTS) systems...

Posted by Hsiao-Wuen Hon, managing director of Microsoft Research Asia As 2012 approaches, the directors of Microsoft Research facilities worldwide were offered an opportunity to discuss their labs’ 2011 accomplishments. This contribution, by Hsiao-Wuen Hon of Microsoft Research Asia , is...

Posted by Rob Knies Each year, the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) recognizes several of its members for their contributions to computing by naming them as Fellows. Today, 46 ACM members have been named as Fellows—and six of them are from Microsoft Research, representing four different...

Posted by Rob Knies Over the last few months, I’ve published a series of feature stories to outline the contributions Microsoft Research has made to the groundbreaking Kinect for Xbox 360 product, which Guinness World Records has dubbed the fastest-selling consumer electronic device ever...

Posted by Rob Knies On Oct. 28, Hsiao-Wuen Hon , managing director of Microsoft Research Asia , signed Phase IV of the Ministry of Education of China-Microsoft Memorandum of Understanding, commonly known as the Great Wall Plan . ( Pictured above are Hon, left foreground, shaking hands with Shen...

Posted by Rob Knies “Carefully hits to the forehead” instead of "Watch your head"? Well, I’m sure I’ve written things like that on occasion myself, and perhaps you have, too. Still, it’s not exactly the king’s English, is it? In China, such usages are referred...

Posted by Rob Knies Welcome to Inside Microsoft Research , a new blog that provides news and insights into research conducted at our 12 facilities around the world. We are privileged to inaugurate the blog by detailing the events being held around the globe on Sept. 27 to mark the 20th anniversary...