From wide-ranging enhancements for the upcoming Microsoft® Windows Vista- operating system to data-mining innovations in SQL Server- to powerful anti-spam filters in Microsoft Office Outlook®, Microsoft Research teams have delivered hundreds of product innovations to Microsoft Corp. customers since 1991. Today at an event marking the research organization's 15th anniversary of turning ideas into reality, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates appeared on screen as Microsoft Research Senior Vice President Rick Rashid and leaders from academia and industry gathered at the company's Redmond lab to recognize these successes and preview new areas where Microsoft Research continues to influence the future of computing.

"From the beginning, Microsoft Research has provided an open, collaborative environment where the brightest minds in computer science can work together to tackle the hardest problems in computing and explore new ideas for reinventing the PC," Gates said. "During the past 15 years, Microsoft scientists have contributed amazing breakthroughs and insights that have advanced the state of the art in dozens of technology fields. Their work is a clear reflection of Microsoft's commitment to innovation".

With more than 700 scientists at five laboratories worldwide, Microsoft Research contributes to Microsoft products as well as long-range technology advancements, often in collaboration with the academic community. Microsoft scientists have made a significant global impact on the collective knowledge of the greater software community, openly sharing their research findings and new discoveries by publishing more than 3,700 academic papers across 55 fields.

Technologies incubated in Microsoft Research have influenced nearly every Microsoft product released since the early part of 1990s. Microsoft Research made a number of contributions of technologies and overall design principles to the upcoming Windows Vista operating system. Microsoft Research developed methods and components that give Windows Vista the ability to anticipate a user's actions and to use these inferences to speed up the system's responsiveness. New desktop search technologies based upon prototypes developed at Microsoft Research allow Windows Vista users to locate anything stored on their computer with lightning quickness, and to unify the experience of searching the Web and the desktop. Another key contribution by Microsoft Research resulted in the development of Windows Media® Photo, a new format that will bring the quality of digital photos much closer to that of film and enable customers to put twice as a number of pictures on a memory card.

"I'm extremely proud that Microsoft has given our scientists unwavering support to relentlessly pursue virtually any realm of computing with no boundaries but the limits of their imaginations," Rashid said. "Over the past 15 years, Microsoft Research has evolved into a diverse organization of not only computer scientists, but also psychology experts, sociologists, anthropologists and medical doctors working to develop innovative technology that will benefit people around the world."


Posted by: Ethan    Source