6 ms·

Microsoft has been showing off a lot of these lab projects lately. I guess they think it helps with their marketing. The problem is they've not just started wor

Microsoft has been showing off a lot of these lab projects lately. I guess they think it helps with their marketing. The problem is they've not just started working on these types of projects. Their R&D has always been doing stuff like this, but either they never seem to come out in products, or if they do, it happens a decade later. So other than marketing bragging rights, this is all pretty pointless if they don't show up in products at all, or not for a decade.

maigret 15y ago
There is some point in what you write, and I wouldn't have downvoted you. But there are counterexamples, like the Surface for example.
- ocdprogrammer 15y ago
  And where is Surface ? Is it available to buy somewhere ?(I never saw a single trace of it in europe) I have a feeling that Surface is already either too expensive or too obsolete.
- corin_ 15y ago
  In reply to ocdprogrammer's dead comment: > And where is Surface ? Is it available to buy somewhere ?(I never saw a single trace of it in europe) I have a feeling that Surface is already either too expensive or too obsolete. I can't speak to what happened to it commercially, but it definitely was available to buy - I organised a demo of it at a trade show in 2010. Since then haven't really paid attention to it, I know a second version of it came out, but no idea how well it did or is doing.
  - king_magic 15y ago
    I do Surface development. Surface v2 isn't that great, TBH. Lots of hardware issues. Lighting is still a huge problem.
onemoreact 15y ago
They also released several such projects. Kinect itself was first announced on June 1, 2009 at E3 2009 under the code name "Project Natal".[48] Following in Microsoft's tradition of using cities as code names,[10] "Project Natal" was named after the Brazilian city of Natal as a tribute to the country by Brazilian-born Microsoft director Alex Kipman, who incubated the project.[10][49] The name Natal was also chosen because the word natal means "of or relating to birth", reflecting Microsoft's view of the project as "the birth of the next generation of home entertainment".[37] I don't know if their R&D department has been a net gain, but you need to consider 20 years from they could be making billions from idea that seemed to have been abandoned today.
- bane 15y ago
  Something a lot of people forget is that for Microsoft, a research project may culminate in something that's a minor feature to be turned on or off -- a checkbox in a menu buried in a control panel "turn on Chinese Handwriting recognition" or some such, wheras we might think that these things could be entire startups! Take a look at http://research.microsoft.com/apps/dp/pr/projects.aspx#p=1&ps=36&so=1&sb=&fr=&to=&fd=&td=&rt=&f=a&a=&pn=&pa=&pd= http://research.microsoft.com/apps/dp/pr/projects.aspx#p=1&#... to see how many of the projects, if successful, will probably just end up as a library with a few API calls, or a series of specifications for hardware manufacturers to go after.
contextfree 15y ago
Isn't that typical of (academic or industrial) research in general? What about it is specific to MSR?

maigret 15y ago

There is some point in what you write, and I wouldn't have downvoted you. But there are counterexamples, like the Surface for example.

ocdprogrammer 15y ago
And where is Surface ? Is it available to buy somewhere ?(I never saw a single trace of it in europe) I have a feeling that Surface is already either too expensive or too obsolete.
corin_ 15y ago
In reply to ocdprogrammer's dead comment: > And where is Surface ? Is it available to buy somewhere ?(I never saw a single trace of it in europe) I have a feeling that Surface is already either too expensive or too obsolete. I can't speak to what happened to it commercially, but it definitely was available to buy - I organised a demo of it at a trade show in 2010. Since then haven't really paid attention to it, I know a second version of it came out, but no idea how well it did or is doing.
- king_magic 15y ago
  I do Surface development. Surface v2 isn't that great, TBH. Lots of hardware issues. Lighting is still a huge problem.

onemoreact 15y ago

They also released several such projects. Kinect itself was first announced on June 1, 2009 at E3 2009 under the code name "Project Natal".[48] Following in Microsoft's tradition of using cities as code names,[10] "Project Natal" was named after the Brazilian city of Natal as a tribute to the country by Brazilian-born Microsoft director Alex Kipman, who incubated the project.[10][49] The name Natal was also chosen because the word natal means "of or relating to birth", reflecting Microsoft's view of the project as "the birth of the next generation of home entertainment".[37] I don't know if their R&D department has been a net gain, but you need to consider 20 years from they could be making billions from idea that seemed to have been abandoned today.

bane 15y ago
Something a lot of people forget is that for Microsoft, a research project may culminate in something that's a minor feature to be turned on or off -- a checkbox in a menu buried in a control panel "turn on Chinese Handwriting recognition" or some such, wheras we might think that these things could be entire startups! Take a look at http://research.microsoft.com/apps/dp/pr/projects.aspx#p=1&ps=36&so=1&sb=&fr=&to=&fd=&td=&rt=&f=a&a=&pn=&pa=&pd= http://research.microsoft.com/apps/dp/pr/projects.aspx#p=1&#... to see how many of the projects, if successful, will probably just end up as a library with a few API calls, or a series of specifications for hardware manufacturers to go after.

contextfree 15y ago

Isn't that typical of (academic or industrial) research in general? What about it is specific to MSR?