Microsoft Research Offers Peek at Future

[Jason Dunn]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.pcworld.com/resource/printable/article/0,aid,110295,00.asp' target='_blank'>http://www.pcworld.com/resource/pri...d,110295,00.asp</a><br /><br /></div>"Some of the best innovations to come from Microsoft's research labs will be invisible, if they work as planned. The research organization, which has grown in the dozen years since its inception to more than 700 people in five labs, has projects ranging from crafting more-reliable software to clamping down on spam to cross-referencing maps of the planet and the skies.<br /><br />Researchers showed off some of those technologies--it's much too early to call them products--at an in-house mini-trade show Wednesday at Microsoft's Mountain View, California, campus. Rick Rashid, senior vice president of Microsoft Research, reported on the organization's current projects."

[Skoobouy]

No Spam @ Any (CPU) Speed: This antispam concept takes several approaches to slowing down spam--literally. Each e-mail exchange would entail solving a cryptographic puzzle. The computation would be required of any e-mail from senders not in a recipient's address book, says Andrew Goldberg, one of the researchers on the project. If the sender failed to respond to a message requesting that they run the antispam filter, the e-mail would be rejected.

WOW! In the last decade, I had always believed that Microsoft has developed a natural talent for making people's lives difficult and complicated. Isn't it nice to see that they're using that talent for a good cause? :D

[fireflyrsmr]

just curious - does anyone know if the tablet hand writing recognition is different than caligrapher and if so is it better or worse?

[ctmagnus]

just curious - does anyone know if the tablet hand writing recognition is different than caligrapher and if so is it better or worse?

I don't know first hand but iirc, Tablet PC uses a different handwriting-recognition method altogether. It doesn't use any kind of SIP that Pocket PC uses.

[QYV]

Yes, Tablet PC uses a different technology for handwriting recognition, and it is significantly better than Calligrapher/Transcriber. My understanding is that it can sample at a much higher resolution (in part because it's not limited by having to use a touchscreen), which unfortunately means we probably won't see any benefits in the PPC world anytime soon.

[aroma]

I don't own a Tablet (yet), but in playing with one in the stores, I was amazed at how well handwriting recognition worked. I would say that I had near 99.9% accuracy.

- Aaron