Mobile World Congress Microsoft Event Live Blog

Digital Narratives From Microsoft Research

 

The Microsoft Rich Interactive Narratives (RIN) project aims to combine traditional forms of storytelling with new visualization technologies to create compelling interactive digital narratives. Experience sample narratives created using the technology at http://www.digitalnarratives.net. The RIN project is an undertaking by MSR India in collaboration with the Interactive Visual Experience group in MSR Redmond and the MSR External Research group. RIN supports a large number of media formats; standard audio and video formats, text, as well as the new formats such as Microsoft® Photosynth™, Deep Zoom™, etc. New visualization formats can be incorporated by adding dynamically-loadable plugins.

Technology

The Rich Interactive Narratives (RIN) technology consists of:

1. The RIN Data Model - a structured, extensible, and platform-independent representation for narratives (it's XML manifestation can be considered a kind of "HTML for RINs")
2. A Silverlight RIN player
3. Silverlight plugins for "foundational Experience Streams", each of which brings a specific visualization experience (such as maps, panoramas, Deep Zoom images) into the realm of RINs
4. Authoring tools to create RIN content

While we have invested in a Silverlight player and plugins, there is nothing in the technology that precludes creating a player and plugins for other platforms, such as HTML5/JavaScript.

RIN is prototype technology. The RIN technology has its origins in the "Sri Andal Temple project" in 2008. The temple demo featured an application that led users through an immersive, interactive, narrated walkthrough Photosynth's and HD View stitched images of a temple in Tamil Nadu (video). Several core RIN concepts such as "Experience Streams" and "Generalized Trajectories" originated in that project.

Keep checking www.digitalnarratives.net for updates. You can find details about the RIN technology at http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/projects/rin/

Microsoft Surface Alternative Using Kinect And PC

Design Lab Experience 001 from Disturbance on Vimeo.

Disturbance offers a first demo, "Design lab experience 001" which introduces interactive table "touchless" created in a few hours.

A glass table, IR sensor, a webcam, a video projector, a mirror and a Mac, this is everything needed to make this prototype behavior and convincing potential: no necessary contact sensor analyzes gesture in space to transform it into information.

A long series of exciting technology/design experiments should follow soon!

Samsung's Vision Of Future

Samsung from Yu Lee on Vimeo.

A world Futurist entirely samsung, realizing speed which the South Korea develops and becomes a global giant, Westerners have anything to worry seriously...
This is the most iconic brand of southern Korea. Samsung is the largest technology company in the world. Profits are higher than Apple, Google and Microsoft combined.
Samsung is also a giant conglomerate whose activities relate to almost all areas.
Search Amazon.com for samsung galaxy tab

Antivirus Protection Test

Open Notepad and paste this string into it ( without double quotes )

“X5O!P%@AP[4\PZX54(P^)7CC)7}$EICAR-STANDARD-ANTIVIRUS-TEST-FILE!$H+H* ”

#2 Save it and as soon as you do your antivirus real time protection should be able to detect it. In case you have disabled the real time protection run a scan for this file.

Microsoft Releases OneNote Mobile For iPhone

OneNote Mobile for the iPhone lets you capture and review notes and lists on your phone. Notes are automatically backed up and synced with free Windows Live SkyDriveonline storage, so that you can access them from virtually anywhere - your PC, phone, and browser. Collecting thoughts and ideas on the go is what OneNote was made for.

And its free only for limited time. So grab it soon.

http://bit.ly/gtaiTd

Microsoft Academic Search Powered by Silverlight

Try it out here: http://www.academic.research.microsoft.com/

Its an awesome resource for Computer Science Students.

Max Payne Using Kinect Hack And Wiimote

The Chase Film- An Intel Core-i Series Ad

Google Goggles Solves Sudoku On the Go

From Google Mobile Blog,

Sudoku

Our favorite weekend distraction is a quiet 15 minutes spent solving a Sudoku puzzle. But even that can be an frustrating experience if (like us) you make a mistake and are unable to solve the puzzle. Now, Goggles on Android and iPhone can recognize puzzles and provide answers to help make you faster than a Sudoku champ. So if you ever get stuck, take a clear picture of the entire puzzle with Goggles and we’ll tell you the correct solution. Check out this video to see how it works.

Google Goggles 1.3 with improved barcode scanning is available for download in Android Market. Recognition of print ads and Sudoku solver is now enabled for the Google Goggles app on Android, as well as the Goggles component of the Google Mobile App on iPhone.

Microsoft Surface 2.0 Announced

Photo credit: Long Zheng – www.istartedsomething.com) (http://www.flickr.com/photos/longzheng/5328368222)

Some details:

Impressively thin table surface for Surface

- Surface 2.0 is mountable.

- No cameras included. Each pixel is a camera. Yup,pixelsense technology.

- Surface has the biggest piece of Gorilla Glass ever produced.

No word and pricing and availability. Steve Ballmer will reveal that at CES keynote I guess.

Created in partnership with Samsung, the Samsung SUR40 for Microsoft Surface incorporates all the key features of the original Surface product – a massive multi-touch experience, the ability to recognize fingers, hands, and objects – as well as a new technology that has enabled a more flexible form factor.

The Next Generation of Microsoft Surface - LCDs That Can ‘See’

Also during Ballmer’s keynote speech, Microsoft unveiled the next generation of Microsoft Surface, built upon a new technology that enables thin LCD screens to “see” without the use of cameras.

Created in partnership with Samsung, the Samsung SUR40 for Microsoft Surface is a major step forward in the surface computing category. It incorporates all the key features of the original Surface product – a massive multi-touch experience, the ability to recognize fingers, hands, and objects – as well as a new technology that has enabled a more flexible form factor.

Just Scratching the Surface

Looking at the year ahead, Ballmer noted that it is an exciting time for Microsoft, partners and customers across the board. Even with all the amazing experiences talked about at CES, from what’s next in Windows to the latest capabilities with Kinect, “the best is yet to come,” he said.

Intel® Anti-Theft Technology Demo

Find out how laptop security measures can help protect your data.

Intel® Anti-Theft Technology (Intel® AT) for Laptop Security

What is it?

Intel® Anti-Theft Technology is an intelligent way for you to help secure the mobile assets of your workforce. This intelligent laptop security technology is built into select 2nd generation Intel® Core™ and 2nd generation Intel® Core™ vPro™ processor families. If a laptop is lost or stolen when the user is out of the office, the PC will be shut down and useless to thieves. It not only helps protect the intellectual property of your company at the pre-boot level, but also allows for fast reinstatement of a laptop without damage to information, should the laptop be recovered. Intel AT is available on select 2nd generation Intel Core and 2nd generation Intel Core vPro processorfamily–based laptops when activated with a service subscription from an Intel AT-enabled service.

Why it matters.

Laptop theft costs corporate America over USD 5.4 billion each year.¹ In everyday life, this amounts to 12,000 laptops disappearing every week from U.S. airports alone, and a laptop being stolen every 53 seconds.¹ The problem of data security becomes increasingly significant as employees are more mobile. Add to this the daunting challenges of healthcare privacy laws, and asset security can have a significant impact on your business.

Protection for laptop users.

Intel Anti-Theft Technology (Intel AT) is built into the processor of your laptop, so it is active as soon as your machine is switched on—even before startup. If your laptop is lost or stolen, a local or remote “poison pill” can be activated that renders the PC inoperable by blocking the boot process. This means that predators cannot hack into your system at startup. It works even without Internet access and, unlike many other solutions, is hardware-based, so it is tamper-resistant.

Buy Google Nexus S In India

Connectivity

• Quad-band GSM: 850, 900, 1800, 1900
• Tri-band HSPA: 900, 2100, 1700
• HSPA type: HSDPA (7.2Mbps) HSUPA (5.76Mbps)

• Wi-Fi 802.11 n/b/g
• Bluetooth 2.1+EDR
• Near Field Communication (NFC)
• Assisted GPS (A-GPS)
• microUSB 2.0

Display

• 4.0" WVGA (480x800)
• Contour Display with curved glass screen
• Super AMOLED
• 235 ppi
• Capacitive touch sensor
• Anti-fingerprint display coating

Size and weight

• 63mm x 123.9mm x 10.88mm
• 129g

Hardware

• Haptic feedback vibration
• Three-axis gyroscope
• Accelerometer
• Digital compass
• Proximity sensor
• Light sensor

Processor and memory

• 1GHz Cortex A8 (Hummingbird) processor
• 16GB iNAND flash memory

Cameras and multimedia

• Back-facing: 5 megapixels (2560x1920)
• 720 x 480 video resolution
• H.264, H.263 MPEG4 video recording
• Auto focus
• Flash
• Front-facing: VGA (640x480)

• 3.5mm, 4-conductor headset jack
  (stereo audio plus microphone)
• Earpiece and microphone
• Software noise-cancellation

Battery

• Talk time up to 6.7 hours on 3G
  (14 hours on 2G)
• Standby time up to 17.8 days on 3G
  (29.7 days on 2G)
• 1500 mAH Lithum Ion

Software

• Android 2.3 (Gingerbread)
• Android Market
• Calendar
• Gmail
• Google Earth
• Google Maps with Navigation
• Google Search
• Google Talk
• Google Voice
• Voice Actions
• YouTube

You can order it here soon.

Dell Venue In India

Tech Specs:

Check it out here at Dell’s website.

Control Boxee Using Kinect

Kinect Does Everything ! ! !

Virtual Reality Through Kinect Hack

Translated using Google from the blog.

Since I bought a head impatiently the end, made in conjunction with motion capture other day, I made a virtual reality environment to enjoy at home.

HMD is doing is rotating the camera angle based on the information, OpenNI only fixed to the head of the joint inputs. Were able to build a virtual reality environment to be able to reflect movement of the body by itself without any special equipment.

This is the second demonstration was held in Nagoya May 18, 12 CV · PRML what you will be presented at the seminar, a video clip when I get a little plus.

State that can be seen moving their limbs and face down a little. The scene is reflected in their non-work your body is feeling very strange and interesting.

In addition, Bullet in the physics of moving objects can interfere so, kicking the ball directly in his body, and can be 弾Ki返Shi the head.

However, HMD compared to the narrow angle of human vision, and that the actual position of the limbs, such as drawing range of video cameras, and the full reality of the movement is shaking his head when they work together to because you are not situations that require fine movement is really strange remains.

Work and kick the ball, not the position of the foot are visible, but I have to aim 蹴Ranai real space, especially in the toe kick of a place that I recognized the error of motion partly Naka Naka difficult.

The bounce in the minute hand is seen in front of me, but tends to do rather than feet, so freedom can not easily get used to the slippery sense of distance, and so did not qualify Ikana. The block face like I've been in my head, so when you bounce because of the people in the main specification, this is an enjoyable atmosphere without feeling so good people do it properly move in space. When it works there is pleasant enough to hit something in the amount of illusion.

VR can look up at the large object in the environment, and any sense of what will look down from above or wanted to do so once tried. As expected on the whole, very amazing realism. Especially from a high place overlooking, CG a little fear can be felt as even know it. But there were also comments to get used to overcome a fear of heights might be nice.

Scenes look up something huge, run pretty well myself, I looked up in his own interesting experiences with a bit of astral projection. TPS and happily run around with the camera fixed behind their movement, such as can be seen.

I've tried the scene to capture other monsters animals and humans in the Making of the movies and games, 面白Katsu not easily give it also put on the motion of different models of the constitution and your watching the reactions of the screen or.

Move your home PC range is narrow so there is only about 1m in front of square, is a little disappointing they've been limited work a lot. Like they're afraid of a little finger or foot hit the guard desk.

kinect itself seems so far recognized as such even if the distance, can cope with the action should be used in larger more spacious room.

In addition, VR920 is compatible with itself is stereopsis, need to send separate images to calculate the left and right eye properly, easy to grasp the sense of distance more likely. Wii limbs and the rest if you give feedback vibration upon contact with the remote control to put quotation, I think how I feel now I think even more.

Even so, the VR environment can be reflected until the motion, and they can be realized only by a combination of commercially available products in the home without special equipment of the ordinary, something I had really great times, and think again.

Source: Hatena

First Look At Notion Ink’s Adam

Google Chrome Canary Crashes on Startup

If you have this problem, follow the following steps,

• Open an Explorer window and type the following line in the address bar.

%localappdata%\Google\Chrome SxS\Application\

• You should now see two folders namely 10.0.611.0 and 10.0.614.0; you will have to delete the latter folder and rename the former folder as 10.0.614.0 (We’re just tricking Chrome that the older version IS the latest one, doing this reverts you to the state before the recent Chrome Canary update and prevents you from getting the buggy update again).

BMW Flashes Its Logo In Viewers Eyes

A creative marketing by BMW..

Change Your Windows Blue Screen To Other Colors

Now you no longer need to look at your Blue Screen when your system crashes. Choose your fav.color,its cool isnt't? Mark Russinovich is the guy behind this work. Who is he? Mark E. Russinovich (1966) is a Technical Fellow in the Platform and Services Division at Microsoft. He was a cofounder of software producers Sysinternals before it was acquired by Microsoft.

Preparing the System

Because you’re going to modify kernel code, the first step is to enable the ability to edit kernel code in memory if it’s not already enabled. Windows systems with less than 2 GB of RAM uses 4KB pages to store kernel code, so can protect pages with the protection most suitable for the contents they contain. For instance, kernel data pages should allow both read and write access while kernel code should only allow read and execute access. As an optimization that helps improve the speed of virtual address translations, Windows uses large pages (4 MB on x86 and x64) on larger systems. That means that if there’s both code and data stored in a page, the page must allow read, write and execute accesses, so to ensure that you can edit a page, you have to encourage Windows to use large pages. If your system is Windows XP or Server 2003 and has less than 256 MB, or is Windows Vista or higher and has 2 GB or less of RAM, create a REG_DWORD value called LargePageMinimum that’s set to 1 under HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management:

So that you don’t have to rush to show off your handiwork before Windows automatically reboots after the crash, change the auto-reboot setting. On Windows XP and Server 2003, right-click on My Computer, select the Advanced Tab, and press the Settings button in the “Startup and Recovery” section. On Windows Vista and higher, right-click on Computer in the Start Menu, select properties to open the Properties dialog, click Advanced System Settings, select the Advanced tab and press the Settings button in the “Startup and Recovery” section. Finally, uncheck the “Automatically restart” checkbox:

If you’re running 64-bit Windows Vista or higher, you need to boot the system in Debug mode so that you can run the kernel debugger in “local” mode. You can do that either by selecting F8 during the system boot and choosing the Debug boot or by checking the Debug checkbox in the System Configuration (Msconfig) utility:

Next, reboot the system and start the debugger with administrator rights (if UAC is on, run it as administrator). Point the debugger at the Microsoft symbol server by opening the Symbol Search Path dialog under the File menu and enter this string: srv*c:\symbols*http://msdl.microsoft.com/download/symbols (replace c:\symbols with whatever local directory in which you want the debugger to store cached symbols). Next, open the Kernel Debugging dialog from the File menu, click the Local page, and press OK:

The subsequent steps vary depending on whether you’re running 32-bit or 64-bit Windows and whether it’s Windows Vista or newer.

32-bit Windows XP and Windows Server 2003

The function that displays the bluescreen on these operating systems is KeBugCheck2. You’re looking for the place where the function passes the color value to the function that fills the screen background, InbvSolidColorFill. Enter the command “u kebugcheck2” to list the start of the function, then enter the “u” command to dump additional pages of the function’s code until you see the reference to InbvSolidColorFill (after entering “u” once, you can just press enter to repeat the command). You’ll need to dump 30-40 pages before you come across the one with the call:

Preceding the call, you’ll see an instruction that has the number 4 as its argument (“push 4”), as you can see above. Copy the code address of that instruction by selecting it from the address column on the left and typing Ctrl+C. Then in the debugger command window, type “eb “, then Ctrl+V to paste the address, then “+1”, then enter. The debugger will go into memory editing mode, starting with the address of the color value. Now you can choose the color you want. 1 is red, 2 is green, and you can experiment if you want a different color. Simply enter the number and press enter twice to commit it and exit editing mode. Here’s what the screen should look like after you’re done:

64-bit Versions of Windows and 32-bit Windows Vista and Higher

On these versions of Windows, the core bluescreen drawing function is KiDisplayBlueScreen. Type “u kidisplaybluescreen” and then continue entering “u” commands to dump pages of the function until you see the call to InbvSolidColorFill. On 32-bit versions of Windows, continue by following the instructions given in the Windows XP/Server 2003 section to find and edit the color value. On 64-bit versions of these operating systems, the instruction preceding the call to InvbSolidColorFill is the one that passes the color, so copy its address (the number in the left column) and enter this command to edit it: “eb <address>+4”. The debugger will go into memory editing mode and you can change the value (e.g. 1 for red, 2 for green):

Viewing the Result

You’re now ready to crash the system. If you’re running 64-bit Windows, you might get a crash without doing anything additionally. That’s because Kernel Patch Protection will notice the modification and crash the system as a deterrent to ISVs that might consider modifying the kernel’s code to change its behavior. There might be a delay of up to several minutes before that happens, though. To generate a crash on demand, run the Notmyfault tool (you can download it from the Windows Internals book page) and press the “Do Bug” button (to avoid data loss, make sure you’ve saved any work and closed all other applications):

You’ll now get a bluescreen in the color you picked, in this case the red screen of death:

The Holiday Bluescreen

In the spirit of the holiday season, I took things one step further to generate a holiday-themed bluescreen: not only did I modify the background color, but the text color as well. To do this on 64-bit versions of Windows Vista or higher, note the call to InvbSetTextColor immediately following the one to InvbSolidColorFill and the address of the instruction that passes the text color to the function, “move ecx, 0Fh”:

The 0Fh parameter represents white, but you can change it using the same editing technique. Use the “eb” command, passing the address of the instruction plus 1. Here I set the color to red (which is a value of 1):

And here’s the festive bluescreen I produced:

Happy holidays! And remember, if you have any troubleshooting cases you want to share, please send me screenshots (.PNG preferred) and log files.

Source: Mark's Technet blog