The most interesting stall was from Microsoft because of Microsoft Surface, it was my first look at this futuristic invention, very very interesting, viewing the demo of Microsoft surface I am quite sure that we will be seeing more of them pretty soon. Considering that it costs 15,000 dollars a piece I don't think its going to be a big investment for hotels, pubs etc to use it as a customer attraction.

Since I have been working with REST in WCF now a days and have had some issues getting the required information, I discussed it with Mike Taulty at microsoft and he was very kind to guide me towards Astoria Data Services to sort out our requirements.

Listening to QA with Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook was interesting and made me think the possibilities that the internet holds today.

I miei pareri al riguardo sono ancora troppo confusi e vaghi per essere riportati in maniera soddisfacente al pubblico, questo anche a causa della mancata possibilità di interagire con questo innovativo prodotto, il che rende impossibile stimarne l'effettiva utilità del prodotto oltre al funzionamento. Finora resto ammaliato dalla semplicità di utilizzo mostrata nei video e sicuramente se individuerò un qualunque luogo in cui sarà possibile utilizzare Microsoft Surface mi metterò subito in coda... Attendo il giorno in cui prodotti del genere o similari potranno essere nelle nostre case...

As of now, a google on ‘Tech vista’ doesn’t find the relevant info on the first few sites listed. And here is my blog about it.

Tech vista is a research symposium conducted by Microsoft Research India. Microsoft has few research centers around the world. Here is the list of it. MSR is located in Banglore, India.

What’s so good about it?

There is a little bit of deviation. These are my views on research in India. I am just an undergraduate. I would love to hear your opinions too.

I have always felt that India doesn’t give research the importance it deserves. Many don’t choose it as their career because it doesn’t always gets you good cash! Few decades back the situation in India was different. We hardly had any job opportunities and all regional movies had this scene – the hero being rejected from interview to interview. Things are different now. We have loads of opportunities. We have to develop and not just sustain. And development without technology is not logical. And advancement in technology without research is impossible.

What were you taught about choosing profession when you were young? What did you think you are supposed to do after you finish of you college? When you were in kindergarten what did you think was your whole point in going to school? I am talking about a typical family. Most children are taught the point in going to school and learning things (scoring marks) was to get a highly paid job. That really makes sense to some extent. But most careers are chosen based on the student’s perception of his own ability and the amount of cash he can get safely with that career.

This is about the general advice given to students who aspire to pursue undergraduate education at Anna University. SAFETY is the most important factor :P. I was told it was always wise to take ECE as your stream if you want to do engineering because IT companies prefer them (the cream of XII std students chose it leaving other departments to the rest) and the next reason was funnier!!! To support that reason here is a small situation which you will be able to handle as an ECE student - You are an ECE student, working in an IT company because you were so good in electronics and communication. The computer industry (most people use this word) goes down. With more than 232 colleges producing engineers, companies that employ electrical engineering people are going to prefer you to fresh under graduate engineers, who are updated with most recent advancement in their field just because you were working with something for few years. Working on something you didn’t learn in college.

There are also guys who take up their course because they are interested. It’s not about them. And it’s also not necessary that you have to work in the field you studied in college. Sometimes it’s not good to leave a prestigious institution just because you didn’t get the course you thought you would love. How would you scold me if I don’t choose IIT M for not getting comp sc? But choosing ECE fearing IT industry might go down is not at all sane. Although the IT industry is growing slow, in India it’s having plenty of opportunities. India is doing so well in IT industry and most people want their kids to choose it as their career because they think it’s their responsibility to make their children choose what was good for them! And most colleges are built around training students for this task – building workforce for the IT industry. I am also being trained. But research is more important.

Government allocating money for research is not just enough. Research people should be paid more! If our government does make sure that they are paid properly, more people will be motivated to pursue research activity. See, they ought to be paid more! They do lot of hard work and some new notable technology found in India is going to make it sound lot better. This doesn’t mean that I say there is no research! So much people are doing it even if it’s not given the recognition it ought to be given! The number of graduates pursuing research in India is far lesser than other developed countries. And this was the point I am trying to make. Things like MSR are definitely going to produce opportunities for research scholars.

Back to MSR Symposium.

The aim of the symposium was stated as ‘motivating students for pursuing research as their career’. It began in the morning around 8:00 am. The motivation for my going there was not Microsoft. It was prof John Hopcroft, IBM Professor of Engineering and Applied Mathematics in Computer Science at Cornell University, honored with A.M. Turing Award. I know him because I had his text book for Theory of computation. This was the introduction given to him – If you have not read his book, you don’t deserve a degree in computer Science.

The list of speakers were :

• Prof Hohn Hopcroft - Computer Science in the future
• Prof Shafi Goldwasser, MIT - Program Obfuscation
• Prof. Shree K Nayar , Columbia University - Computational Cameras
• Dr. Vijay Chandru, phd MIT - Computational Biology
• Dr. Richard Szeliski, Microsoft Research - Weaving the World’s Photos
• Richard F Rashid, senior Vice President,MSR - Making an Impact

The talks were interesting. They didn’t go too much into technical stuffs and abstracted to the level what would make students interested. They obviously didn’t want students to run away. After that talk was over, I talked with prof. Hopcroft :)

We had a live demo on ‘India Digital Heritage’. They had used a technology called Photosynth. Rough idea on photosynth: What they do is, they build a digital 3-d model of an object or scene by capturing multiple images from different angles. They combine all this photographs into a single interface. You can also look at an object from different view points from which the photographs of the object were taken. The transition from one view point to another gives you a feel as though you are moving from this place to another! The point is you get a virtual scene in which you can travel, zoom in for more detail, generate detail and lot more (I know only this much). You can also build your own 3-d models by using their site. Have a look at it. You can synth your own photos. That’s what they call! Use the wiki for more info!

There were also abstract posters displayed by phd students. We had fun hearing new concepts and it also felt good to question phd students: P.

They also talked about the research activity at Microsoft and about Microsoft surface! It will be a sort of table that can interact with real word objects – your hand, brush, glass, mobile phones and more! If you haven’t heard about surface, don’t miss it!! Google for it!

This post is getting longer. Will add more in the next post!

Many people from my department had turned up including HOD of my department. It was all fun! Don’t miss it the next year. Word of caution – It’s not the academic developers conference conducted my Microsoft ;) lolz!

They've invented tabletop which is interactive. Screw the mouse and keyboard experience (which is how we've used computers for the last 50 years). The coolest thing is how it interacts with electronic objects. It downloads photos immediately from your camera, without any cables being inserted. You can split bills at the restaurant by putting your credit card on the surface and moving the food pictures around of what you ordered.

Check out the youtube video - which still does not do it justice.

If you want more videos and info, check out the official website.  the possibilities are endless. If you check out the other vids, you'll see that they've used it for interactive games with multiple users and also a chat function at Las vegas casinos (hello ladies!).

I'm out like tabletops,

Matt Ho

              -------------------------------------------------

17:42 Uh oh - my latest blogpost just got linked again on MSR homepage... last time that happened global hits were huge tinyurl.com/j4wcv #

17:47 Kicking people out of my office so I can go home myself, debate pizza party! #

22:52 The scrolling WisdomOfCrowd at election.twitter.com was the way to go tonight, funny/piquant/profane/profound ... very American #

08:40 taking Photosynth pictures at home, later at Stratford Hall, will eventually post at tinyurl.com/6ebzu7 #

09:01 Still haven't made it over to Library of Congress to play with their use of Surface. TJ "edited" by Adams? Absurd! tinyurl.com/4gmxdz #

               ----------------------------------------------------

If you're bored, you can follow me in real time at http://twitter.com/lewisshepherd.

Today, our Microsoft Surface developer unit got installed.  We have crazy ideas and we have developers itching to turn those ideas into reality.

I'm having fun.

Participe do TechEd 2008 edição Brasil

O Tech-Ed Brasil 2008 apresentará aos profissionais de TI e Desenvolvedores inúmeros recursos técnicos com conteúdo preparado especialmente para o encontro. O evento ocorrerá entre os dias 14 e 16 de Outubro e contará com a participação de Steve Ballmer. Imperdível! E eu finalmente estarei lá, ser um MSP tem suas vantagens, rs!

Você poderá organizar sua agenda tendo como opções dezenas de apresentações. Conhecerá as últimas versões dos produtos e poderá conversar pessoalmente com funcionários da Microsoft e com especialistas do mercado.

Os participantes do Tech-Ed Brasil 2008 estarão inseridos num privilegiado grupo de profissionais que viverão uma experiência repleta de novas oportunidades, troca de informações e atualização de conhecimentos que vão impulsionar ainda mais suas carreiras.

Por que Tech-Ed?

• Saiba tudo sobre as novas tecnologias e produtos lançados em 2008: Windows Server 2008, SQL Server 2008 e Visual Studio 2008.
• Obtenha um maior entendimento de como funciona a infra-estrutura que suporta suas aplicações –Windows Server 2008 e a nova versão do IIS (Internet Information Services);
• Crie aplicações poderosas, utilizando tecnologias, tais como Microsoft ASP.NET, ASP.NET AJAX, Silverlight , Microsoft Expression Studio e Visual Studio 2008;
• Melhore a segurança e produtividade de seu ambiente através das práticas que serão apresentadas;
• Interaja com nossos especialistas, que possuem experiência prática com nossos produtos e soluções;
• Saiba como resolver problemas relacionados à implementação e integração, troubleshooting e gerenciamento de sistemas e infra-estrutura;
• É uma ótima oportunidade para relacionamento e networking com profissionais renomados e membros influentes da comunidade.
• Prepare-se para os desafios de amanhã.

Lembrando que o Keynote será ninguém menos que Steve Ballmer. A lenda vem ao Brasil para abrir esse importante evento no cenário mundial. O evento conta com palestrantes da Microsoft Brasil e Microsoft Corporation (EUA).

Windows – Clientes Banco de Dados / BI Gerenciamento e Operações Segurança Windows – Servidores Comunicações Unificadas	Aplicações Compostas Aplicações Ricas Interativas Acesso a Dados Ferramentas de Desenvolvimento Desenvolvimento WEB

 

Valores

Oferta especial de lançamento	Valor para compra antecipada	Valor do ingresso sem desconto
20/08 à 01/09	02/09 à 23/09	24/09 à 10/10
(às 23:59 h)	(às 23:59 h)	(às 23:59 h)
R$ 599,00	R$ 699,00	R$ 799,00

* A venda de ingressos será realizada até o dia 10 de Outubro de 2008, ou enquanto houver ingressos disponíveis. Vagas limitadas.

Inscreva-se já!

E quando eu voltar de lá, podem esperar por uma super matéria sobre todo o evento, com fotos e tudo mais.

If you are traveling, you can see Microsoft Surface Virtual Concierge 30-inch tables in the lobbies of five Sheraton Hotel: Boston, New York, Chicago, Seattle, San Francisco. Applications include CityTips with attractions, eateries, shopping, maps, and transportation; a digital jukebox; and SheratonSnapshots, a library of photos of Sheraton resorts.

If you threw a party with the Surface DJ everybody would definitely be in the Kitchen.  In fact, it may be impossible to get people to go home.  Watch the Video and you'll want one too.

La Mesa Mágica de Microsoft, plantea una verdadera revolución en la forma cómo interactuamos con la tecnología.
Ok. quedamos aturdidos y embobados con el Iphone, pero la Microsoft Surface es una cosa de locos... Se trata de una mesa con una pantalla sensible al tacto que pemite hacer de todo (bue... casi todo):
* Navegar por mapas de la ciudad
* Dibujar y Pintar con los dedos
* Pagar la cuenta poniendo la tarjeta sobre la mesa
* Transferir información desde y hacia celulares.
Y un sin fin de "tonteras" Geek.

La historia de este proyecto se remonta hacia el 2001 y hoy, se pueden ver, apreciar,  disfrutar e interactuar con estos "juguetitos" en algunos Hoteles Sheraton de U.S.A, además de un Casino en Las Vegas, donde la gente puede ordenar, pagar, jugar, y comunicarse con otras "Mesitas".

No seré fan de Bill Gates y Co.
pero que me impresionó... Claro que sí.

Microsoft technology are not ending! Technology evolves every day and new hardware and software are made available from many manufacturers. Some great innovations go un-noticed and some get recognized early. Multi-touch technology had been there quite for some time. After a long research, Microsoft has finally launched Microsoft Surface - a multi touch multi user surface computer, that has already captured the imagination of many. This is likely to change the way people use the computers in future in various businesses. The possibilities of Microsoft Surface are many. It depends on the creativity of the solution developers and the willingness of the businesses to change their infrastructure to accommodate Microsoft Surface.

Microsoft Surface Features are:

Direct interaction: Facility to manage digital information with hand gestures and touch instead on mouse and keyboard.

Multi-touch contact: User need not use only one finger to manage digital data. If user dips five fingers in five different colors in the on screen paint palette and draws five lines with five fingers, you get five lines with five colors.

Multi-user experience: Typical computers accept only one keyboard and a mouse. Microsoft Surface accepts multiple inputs from multiple users. More than one person sitting across the Surface, can do independent work on the same Surface.

Object recognition: The system can identify physical objects placed on the Surface. It can relate the appropriate software for the appropriate item placed on surface. Objects may be recognized based on their shape or on special codes ( like barcodes) affixed to them.

Display Type: 30-inch Flat panel display

Orientation: Horizontal – like a table to allow users to use, share and create experiences together.

CPU: Core 2 Duo processor

Processor: 1 GHz processor.

Installed Memory: 2GB of RAM

Hard drive: Yes

Graphics Card: 256MB graphics card.

Projector: DLP light engine like the one used in rear-projection HDTV.

Cameras: Five cameras with infrared filters - net resolution of 1280 x 960

Material: The tabletop is acrylic, and its interior frame is powder-coated steel.

Surface: Not touch-sensitive surface. When you place or drag a finger, internal projector lights screen from beneath.

Power Supply: Standard American 110–120V power

Operating System: The custom software platform runing on Windows Vista

Network Connectivity: Wired Ethernet 10/100 and wireless 802.11 b/g and Bluetooth 2.0 connectivity.

Dimensions: 22 inches high, 21 inches deep and 42 inches wide.

Weight: 150 pounds

Other features:

Drag & Drop: Like any widows Operating system, all items can be dragged and dropped.

Automatic Identification: Can identify objects. Place your Digital camera on the surface and you can see the photos displayed on the surface without actually downloading!

Initial customers: Harrah's Entertainment, Starwood Hotels and Resorts, T-Mobile and IGT.

Ideal for: Restaurants, games, shops and Entertainment

Microsoft Surface Approximative Price: US$ 10000

Check out the video below:
Click here to launch the video

The Microsoft Surface Website

La ventaja de utilizar escritorios multitáctiles como éste es enorme, al permitir visualizar con mayor facilidad recreaciones de cuerpos en 3D, por ejemplo en clases de biología podrías ver la ubicación de los órganos y rotar la imagen para poder apreciar de mejor forma nuestra anatomía, o en clases de física ver los efectos de la gravedad o choques in/elásticos pudiendo jugar con ellos, logrando que los niños dejen de ver ecuaciones para pasar a conceptualizar en su mente lo que estas significan en la vida real.

Por el momento SynergyNet se trata sólo de un concepto, pero de llevarse a la realidad y con un buen software podría revolucionar nuestras salas de clases.

Now in the run-up to the election NBC has found a use for Surface in mapping out the different states and how they fall to either Obama or McCain.

And, to top it off, this sarcastic little video is just the thing for a friday afternoon.

From last couple of weeks I worked on silverlight and got exited with the feeling of immense opportunity to doing things. I made an application Drag-Twist album which is inspired by Microsoft Surface image and video browsing. It took very few days to develop. Here you can resize and scale image and video as well as you can drag it. A lot of things you can do with silverlight

Silverlight is making media richer day by day. Here by applying some transformations achieved the wanted results. In same way we can create different kind of games like image puzzles.

But still a lot of improvement is needed in silverlight. Some time it needs more resources form client system and in the result some time it's animations get affected badly. So presently we should avoid putting moving objects in silverlight applications some time motion is not smooth. I think in next 2-3 year silverlight become mature enough to use it in any way.

Tuesday September 30, 2008
4:30 to 7:30 pm
Accelerator Centre
Main foyer
295 Hagey Blvd., Waterloo
[Map]

Event description

Get inspired by two case studies of innovation in action:

• First we'll hear from Jensen Harris about the thinking and design process behind Microsoft's new Ribbon user interface, introduced in Office 2007. Jensen is Group Program Manager of the Office UX Team and was a key designer of the Ribbon, so he's able to speak from personal experience about what it was like to design something that's now used by millions of people.
• Next, the creative design team at Infusion Development takes the stage to talk about their work with Microsoft Surface, the interactive table that ushered in a new wave of commercial development in multi-touch (or NUI) devices. They will present demos of Surface applications they've built for clients in hospitality, retail, and government, discussing their designs and the challenges in building usable interfaces for this relatively new technology.

RSVPs required

Given the cool topics, the free food, and the great prizes, we're likely to have a full house at the Accelerator Centre. Please RSVP if you plan to attend. To RSVP, send an email to Kayla Spiess at Infusion Angels.

Microsoft Surface is a Windows Vista PC tucked inside a table that lets users deal with digital content by multi-touching the table surface or placing objects on it. The technology was first announced by Microsoft in May 2007 but it came to reality by April 2008 when AT&T used it in their stores for the first time.

In AT&T stores, customers can put phones on the table surface (screen) and it will recognize the phone and display all of its features and availability information in a very attractive graphical representation on the table screen. The user can move from one menu to another by touching the surface and experience using the phone as if it was real.

But that's not all about it. The technology is to be used in many other places. Surface is heavily targeted to be used in restaurants as it adds real excitement there. Menus with pictures are displayed right on Surface tables in a very attractive flash-like style. With a few simple steps, customers could make their choices by multi-touching the table and their orders will be ready to be served in minutes. When placing objects on the table (like plates and glasses) different graphical shapes are displayed right around them and keep on animating and reshaping. Imagine bubbles floating around your glass of wine and you could just touch them and move them around while enjoying your meal. Dating is also possible through Surface. Using cameras that focus on different tables, you can easily select a certain table and send flirt messages to whoever you like and they'll get them right at the other end.

Surface is optimized to respond to 52 touches at a time. It could also respond to objects placed on it as long as they are "tagged" as well as supporting multi-user experience. The unit costs from $5000 to $10000 but Microsoft is expecting that the prices will drop down by 2010. You can watch real interesting videos about Surface at www.microsoft.com/surface.

You can contact the author at press@janusnetworks.com