(opens in new tab) (opens in new tab)Recaps of the top 10 news stories of the year—it’s a New Year’s tradition that rivals Dick Clark’s “New Year’s Rockin’ Eve” show. So who are we to buck convention? Therefore, without further ado, here are the top 10 Microsoft Research Connections blogs of 2011, as chosen by your clicks.
Number 10: Kinect for Windows SDK Beta Refresh Available (opens in new tab)
Who can resist building apps for the latest and greatest Kinect sensor? Apparently not the developers who are avid readers of our blog. So let’s raise a cup of cheer, or eggnog, to the intrepid innovators who are using the Kinect for Windows Software Development Kit (SDK) to push the boundaries of natural user interface applications.
Microsoft Research Blog
Microsoft at CHI 2024: Innovations in human-centered design
From immersive virtual experiences to interactive design tools, Microsoft Research is at the frontier of exploring how people engage with technology. Discover our latest breakthroughs in human-computer interaction research at CHI 2024.
Number 9: Night at the Museum—sans Ben Stiller (opens in new tab)
A planetarium show plus a demonstration of the new earth-sciences applications of Microsoft Research’s WorldWide Telescope (WWT) took center stage at the California Academy of Sciences. If you thought turning your computer into a world-class telescope was cool, you’ll be blown away by WWT’s ability to create earth-science narratives.
Number 8: Introducing Chemistry Add-in for Word (opens in new tab)
The ancient Egyptians had nothing on us: using chemistry symbols in digital documents can be every bit as cumbersome as carving hieroglyphics into stone. And then came Chemistry Add-in for Word, which makes it easier for students, chemists, and researchers to insert and modify chemical information, such as labels, formulas, and 2-D depictions, from within Microsoft Word.
Number 7: Digital Research Libraries Get a Boost with Latest Zentity Release (opens in new tab)
Research archivists, librarians, and others who have grappled with organizing and accessing voluminous research collections asked for it—and Microsoft Research Connections delivered: the 2.1 release of Zentity. A repository platform designed to manage research objects—such as journal articles, reports, datasets, projects, and people—as well as the relationships among them, Zentity supports arbitrary data models and provides semantically rich functionality that enables users to find and visually explore interesting relationships between elements.
Number 6: Parallel Processing Software Gets a Boost in Barcelona (opens in new tab)
Today, it seems that everything—from smart phones and tablets to PCs and supercomputers—is sprouting extra cores so users can do more. Can Microsoft Research Connections help create parallel code to make the most efficient use of these ubiquitous multi-core processors? Need you ask? A joint venture of the Barcelona Supercomputing Center and Microsoft Research Centre (BSCMSRC) is bringing together the expertise of hardware and software researchers to do just that.
Number 5: Building a .NET Quality Control Tool for Next-Generation Sequencing Technologies (opens in new tab)
Quality control—it’s vital in food inspections and DNA sequencing. Unfortunately, not all sequencing technologies produce reliable and accurate results, and experimental data will always contain varying rates of error. That’s where Sequence Quality Control Studio (SeQCoS) can help. A Microsoft .NET software suite designed to perform an array of QC evaluations and post-QC manipulation of sequencing data, SeQCoS generates a series of standard plots that illustrate the quality of the input data.
Number 4: Women in Technology Hop to It in Portland (opens in new tab)
Every year, the annual Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Technology brings the research and career interests of women in computing to the forefront. This past year was no exception, as some 2,000 attendees descended on Portland, Oregon, to hear about the latest research and explore the roles of women in computer science, information technology, research, and engineering. Microsoft Research Connections was there, too, offering support and free epiphytes (really)!
Number 3: Chinese University Students Push the Boundaries of Kinect for Windows (opens in new tab)
Chinese university students took the Kinect for Windows SDK and pushed it hard, applying the sensor’s depth sensing, voice and object recognition, and human motion tracking capabilities to diverse topics: from education to commerce to culture and history. Their creative and elegant applications far surpass traditional games, demonstrating Kinect’s potential in diverse areas.
Number 2: Microsoft Research and the Kinect Effect (opens in new tab)
Our blog readers are very interested in Kinect! And why not? Thanks to contributions from Microsoft Research, Kinect has state-of-the-art audio, skeletal-tracking, and facial-recognition capabilities. Microsoft built Kinect to revolutionize the way you play games and how you experience entertainment. But along the way, people started applying the “Kinect Effect” in ways we never imagined—from helping children with autism to assisting doctors in the operating room.
Number 1: Unlocking Academic Success with Frame Games for Learning (opens in new tab)
Drumroll please: the top-ranked Microsoft Research Connections blog explored—what else?—a game. But, surprisingly, it isn’t Kinect based! Instead, it’s a learning game that was developed in collaboration with the Rochester Institute of Technology. Called Just Press Play, the game helps students earn a digital reward for the ultimate achievement: collegiate success. Just Press Play encourages students to venture out of their comfort zone and get involved in all aspects of school—including (gasp) interactions with school faculty and staff.
So there they are: 2011’s most-read Microsoft Research Connections blogs. Why Robots Invade Upstate New York (opens in new tab) didn’t make the list is beyond us. Go figure. Happy New Year from your friends at Microsoft Research Connections!
—Lisa Clawson, Senior Manager, Microsoft Research Connections