Microsoft news – Page 237

Posted on November 16, 2018 by sick skills — Leave a comment

Now this is ‘smart’ shopping: Track the best Black Friday bargains with Bing

Intelligent shopping

We know that often, shopping can be a journey. You might start with a need in mind, or a few products you want to learn about. To end up with a great purchase, you need the right tools to guide you along the way. To make your holiday shopping easier, we’ve embedded Bing artificial intelligence algorithms into parts of our shopping experience to deliver results that are both relevant and organized, to help you make the most efficient purchasing decision.

Black Friday

With Black Friday and Cyber Monday just around the corner, we want to make sure you have access to the best deals across many of the top retailers—without the stress of having to clip coupons.

We’ve designed browsable Black Friday infographics, organized and categorized for shopping convenience from your desktop or phone. Search our repository for a specific store to find the best prices for the items you are looking for, and Bing automatically extracts deals from the flyer image.

Our Black Friday experience highlights important info, such as how long an offer lasts, nearby stores, or other ongoing promotions, so that you never miss a bargain this holiday season. To find Back Friday details from our regular Bing shopping tab, simply search on “Black Friday” and the name of the store or item you are searching for.

Also, keep an eye on this page after Black Friday as we’re adding more stores, more offers, and different promotions throughout the holidays.

Phone comparisons

We know that smartphones are one of the most common, and most expensive, purchases made during the holiday, and Black Friday is often the peak time for product deals. With so many different options available on the market today, it can be tough to understand the differences between each model to find the one best suited to your needs.

Comparison shop with Bing by searching, for example, “iPhone x vs Samsung galaxy s9” and Bing serves up information from authoritative sources such as ratings, expert reviews, and product highlights to accurately compare a variety of different product models in a way that’s easy to digest and browse.

Product insights

With so many new products and devices available during the holidays, even shopping online can become overwhelming. We want to help you better understand the buzz around new products, as well as the key features, ratings, and reviews to make an informed and stress-free purchasing decision. Simply type what you are looking for into Bing, such as “best laptops,” and you’ll see the product insights synthesized for you automatically.

Happy shopping!

Whether you’ve been planning for Black Friday since July or are more of a last-minute shopper, we hope that Bing’s intelligent features will help you make more efficient and stress-free decisions this holiday season—saving you time and money.

Stay tuned for more features as the holidays progress.

Posted on November 16, 2018 by sick skills — Leave a comment

Xbox Adaptive Controller one of TIME’s ‘Best Inventions of 2018’

For people with limited hand and arm mobility, it can be tough to play video games, which are generally controlled using small buttons and joysticks. And while some gamers and small companies have engineered hacks, major gaming companies have largely remained on the -sidelines—until now. Inspired by an internal hackathon and informed by work with groups like the Cerebral Palsy Foundation, Microsoft developed the Xbox Adaptive Controller ($100), an oversize version of its classic rig designed to empower as many gamers as possible. Its main buttons, for example, are roughly 4 in. in -diameter—large enough to be pressed with an elbow or chin, if necessary. It also features ports to accommodate additional aids, like a foot pedal. Xbox designer Chris Kujawski urges others to follow suit: “We hope [our controller] becomes a catalyst for inclusiveness in the gaming industry.” —Samantha Cooney

Posted on November 16, 2018 by sick skills — Leave a comment

Now available: ‘State of Decay 2’ free ‘Zedhunter’ update

Today, to celebrate and thank the 4 million strong State of Decay 2 community, we’re releasing the Zedhunter Update to Xbox Game Pass subscribers and current players for free. Players will get this pack, which adds a wealth of new options and ways to enjoy the game, as part of a content update beginning today – it’s our way of saying thanks to the 4 million of you who have supported our game since launch.

At X018 last weekend, we provided some initial details for the Zedhunter Update and how it brings new weapons and gameplay items to your community, but now we’re ready to give you a deeper dive into the Zedhunter Update’s additions. The Zedhunter Update integrates into your main community game and adds an iconic zombie-slaying weapon: crossbows, with eight new types now available! This is big, as crossbows are silent and powerful weapons – for example, scoped crossbows can more easily score headshots without drawing any attention or aggression from other zombies nearby.

Crossbow bolts can also be recovered afterwards (making them the eco-friendliest post-zombie apocalypse weapon around), and unlike traditional firearms, crossbows never jam or break. Because they’re powerful, efficient and silent, using them against a plague zombie gives you a higher chance of extracting a plague sample. The new crossbows might be your go-to weapon, but the Zedhunter Update also comes with three new melee and three new close-combat weapons for the more hands-on and stealthier survivor – giving you plenty of swords and knives to fight enemies with.

Expect even more customization options in the Zedhunter Update; the content update will include the ability to reset a survivor’s core skill specializations. If you ever wanted to switch your Cardio from Marathon to Backpacking you can read a new training manual and then change the specialization of that core skill – though be aware that the trade-off is that you’ll gain experience for this new skill slower than usual. Additionally, we’ve added six new “quirk skills” (like “Hygiene”) which provide new buffs to your survivors or to your community; you can find these skill books by tracking down the Skills Trader when that character visits your town.

One other gameplay addition we’re excited about is the addition of three new potent plague consumables. These can drastically enhance your survivor’s abilities; but we should mention that they’re basically poison to humans, since they involve consuming a touch of plague infection. Maybe a little infection is worth it for the ability to see in the dark or sneak past zombies without drawing their attention – it’ll be up to you to decide.

To help introduce all this new content, we’ve added several missions to the game (and updated others). If you want to experience these new missions, keep an eye out for missions labeled “Mysterious” you may happen across during your quest. Lastly, we’ve added three new achievements for you to attain for as you play through the new Zedhunter Update additions.

As mentioned before, the Zedhunter Update will be free for all SOD2 players – Xbox Game Pass members, Standard Edition and Ultimate Edition owners – beginning today. If you’ve been waiting to jump into the game, now’s the perfect time with the Xbox Black Friday sale coming around the corner. Whether you start a new Xbox Game Pass for just $1 for the first month, or get either the Standard Edition and Ultimate Edition on sale for 35% off, the Zedhunter Update will be ready and waiting for you.

At Undead Labs, we’ve set out to build the ultimate zombie survival fantasy and are committed to delivering that in every way – which is why we’ve also announced that in the near future players can look forward to a new difficulty experience, along with the chance to return to Trumbull Valley in 2019. With today’s free Zedhunter Update, we’re giving our 4 million (and growing) players even more tools to answer the question: how will you survive?

Posted on November 16, 2018 by sick skills — Leave a comment

Meeting the tech demand for security-cleared veteran talent

This post was originally published on LinkedIn and written by U.S. Marine Corps Major General (Ret.) Chris Cortez, vice president of Microsoft Military Affairs, on November 15, 2018.

Today the United States government faces an unprecedented range of threats—from both traditional foes to modern menaces in the digital realm. And as our country faces these new challenges, it is also in the midst of a digital transformation of its services and operations. Equipping people on the front lines of national security with modern skills and technological awareness is paramount, and we’re committed as industry partners to helping along that journey.

Yet, the work of modernizing and protecting the US government is not just a technology story, it is a people story. Our ability to safeguard our people and institutions relies on a highly specialized and skilled workforce to build, code, and innovate for the future. What we’re seeing now though is a gap between the demand for capabilities and the supply of this much-needed talent.

Many of us have heard about the technology skills gap. We know that technology jobs are growing at a faster rate than the average for all other occupations, and that the demand greatly outpaces the supply. The Brookings Institution suggested last year that digitization of the US economy will require significant investment in education and training both to broaden the pipeline of talent and also to ensure that underrepresented groups aren’t left behind in the new digital economy.

In government though, there is an even more specific gap—that of “cleared talent”—those with security clearances that can be applied to tackle problems that require access to highly sensitive information. And within this pool of talent, there is a very small population of cleared talent with the background in technology that is required to help our government modernize at levels needed. Despite the need to expand this workforce, we’ve seen the population of cleared talent decrease by 30 percent since 2013, with wait times for security clearance approvals now at their highest level ever. Last year, the US was sitting on a security clearance backlog of more than 700,000 applicants.

New data we obtained in partnership with LinkedIn shows the demand for cleared software engineers is very high—with the Washington, D.C., area as the highest demand in the country—and that only 5 percent of professionals with a security clearance hold a degree in computer science. The top two industries hiring cleared talent are also expected to grow even more in the next year: The defense and space industry by 53 percent, and the information technology industry by 49 percent.

The stunted pipeline for cleared talent is not just an HR problem. It is a matter of national security and a threat to progress and innovation.

One population that is critical to help close this gap is our country’s talented veteran workforce. We know that 200,000 military members transition out of the service every year, and, of those with security clearances, many are active duty military, according to a 2018 ClearanceJobs.com report.

At Microsoft, we pioneered Microsoft Software & Systems Academy (MSSA), which trains transitioning service members and veterans over the course of an 18-week program for careers in the IT industry. Since MSSA started five years ago, nearly 400 companies and organizations have hired our graduates. For us, it’s proof not only that veterans are an incredible talent pool, but that programs like MSSA are essential to addressing critical skills gaps in the tech industry outside the traditional four-year degree. Companies like Microsoft are better for having these phenomenal veterans working for us and helping advance our mission.

That’s why I am excited to announce that Microsoft will launch a new, dedicated MSSA-cleared talent cohort at Washington state’s Joint Base Lewis-McChord this spring. The program will cater to service members and veterans with active clearances who are interested in learning cloud application development, which is in high demand in the technology industry. As with every MSSA cohort, these students will be mentored by current Microsoft employees and upon completion of the course will be guaranteed an interview with Microsoft or one of our hiring partners, including the US government.

National security depends on private and public institutions working together to prevent and address emerging threats. And being a trusted partner for government transformation means that we are just as committed to investing in our own talent pipeline as we are in theirs. Innovative training programs like MSSA, which benefit both veterans and the industry as a whole, are critical.

There is much more that can be done to address both the technology skills gap and the cleared talent gap, but we must seek new and innovative ways to both build our pipeline of workers and support those who are being left out of the digital economy. Empowering active duty service members and veterans to transition to careers in technology is a win-win for helping to sustain a vital population of our workforce while building a critical, diverse pipeline for in-demand talent. By prioritizing IT and technology training for veterans to operate in the private sector, we can transform our collective capabilities to keep our country safe and moving forward.

Visit military.microsoft.com/MSSA to learn more.

Posted on November 16, 2018 by sick skills — Leave a comment

SMITE and Paladins esports return to Mixer

Mixer has a long-standing partnership with Hi-Rez, starting with the Paladins Console Series announced in October of last year, and then the announcement of the SMITE Pro League last February. Earlier today at Hi-Rez Expo (HRX), we announced a continued partnership with Hi-Rez Studios and Skillshot Media, which includes the expansion of SMITE and Paladins esports exclusively on Mixer!

We’re excited to share that the 2019 season of the SMITE Pro League and SMITE Console League will continue to be exclusive on Mixer, building on the success of both leagues during Season 5. In addition, the other premium league from Hi-Rez, Paladins Premier League, featuring the top esports organizations from around the world, will also be coming exclusively to Mixer in 2019!

Earlier this year, Mixer implemented interactive stats dashboards for SMITE esports broadcasts using MixPlay custom controls. We will continue to introduce innovative Mixer features, such as MixPlay integrations and custom Skill packs, for all future SMITE and Paladins esports broadcasts.

The latest integration, MixPlay Rewards, where you can earn in-game items just by linking your Mixer and Hi-Rez accounts and watching official Hi-Rez broadcasts, will debut at HRX this weekend for both SMITE and Paladins broadcasts. Tune-in to official Hi-Rez Expo broadcasts for SMITE and Paladins on Mixer to earn HRX Loki and Convention Furia!

We’ll be announcing more exciting news about the 2019 season of SMITE and Paladins esports over the next few days at HRX – follow @WatchMixer, @SmitePro, and @PaladinsPro on Twitter for all the latest updates!

Posted on November 15, 2018 by sick skills — Leave a comment

HoloLens experience pays homage to Mont-Saint-Michel in Normandy, France

See the results of a months-long effort to create a HoloLens experience that pays homage to Mont-Saint-Michel, in Normandy, France, in all its forms – as a physical relief map and work of art; as a real place visited by millions of people over the centuries; and as a remarkable digital story of resilience. In this three-part Today in Technology series, they examine how AI and mixed reality can open a new window into French culture by using technology like HoloLens.

Posted on November 15, 2018 by sick skills — Leave a comment

Introducing the Azure Blockchain Development Kit

“Developers! Developers! Developers!” That phrase is synonymous with Microsoft’s history of democratizing complex technologies and empowering anyone with an idea to build software.

Over four decades, we’ve lowered barriers to development with developer tooling, enterprise integration, DevOps, PaaS, and SaaS. Today, serverless offerings from Functions and Logic Apps to Azure DevOps and IoT Central remove friction for development in the cloud.

This morning, we’re excited to announce the initial release of the Azure Blockchain Development Kit which is built on Microsoft’s serverless technologies and seamlessly integrates blockchain with the best of Microsoft and third-party SaaS.

This kit extends the capabilities of our blockchain developer templates and Azure Blockchain Workbench, which incorporates Azure services for key management, off-chain identity and data, monitoring, and messaging APIs into a reference architecture that can be used to rapidly build blockchain-based applications.

These tools have become the first step for many organizations on their journey to re-invent the way they do business. Apps have been built for everything from democratizing supply chain financing in Nigeria to securing the food supply in the UK, but as patterns emerged across use cases, our teams identified new ways for Microsoft to help developers go farther, faster.

This initial release prioritizes capabilities related to three key themes: connecting interfaces, integrating data and systems, and deploying smart contracts and blockchain networks.

Connect

To deliver end to end blockchain solutions for consortiums, developers need to enable organizations, people, and devices to connect to the blockchain and do it from a heterogenous set of user interfaces.

Take for example an end to end supply chain for a commodity such as cocoa.

SMS and voice interfaces enable small hold farmers in Africa to transact and track their goods at the first mile of the supply chain.

Internet of Things (IoT) devices deliver sensor data to track the conditions of the goods at different points in their journey to market – tracking the humidity in the containers where the beans are held to the temperature of the end product of ice cream that it is incorporated into.

Mobile clients enable logistics providers to accept and transfer responsibility for products on their journey from manufacturer to retail using the compute power that already exists in the pockets of its employees. Mobile devices also have sensors such as GPS and cameras that can add complementary data that can help attest to the what, where, and when of deliveries.

Backend Systems and Data in the form of ERP systems such as Dynamics and SAP are used to manage core processes for different participants. These systems also become clients via extension and need to interact with smart contracts to provide and receive attestable data on behalf of an organization.

Bots and assistants enable manufacturers and retailers to interact with the supply chain. This includes interacting with smart contracts for orders and provenance using natural language and using attestable data from the blockchain to direct actions taken on behalf of a user.

Web clients enable end consumers to query the origin of the product purchased at retail, typically a mix of provenance and story of their journey of their product from “farm to fork”

The Azure Blockchain Development Kit includes samples for all of these scenarios, including inbound and outbound SMS, IVR, IoT Hub and IoT Central, Xamarin mobile client for iOS and Android, Dynamics integration via Common Data Service (CDS), bots and assistants (Cortana, Alexa, Google Assistant) and web UX.

Integrate

Businesses are using blockchain and smart contracts to facilitate multi-party processes. Blockchain also delivers real-time transparency of the states and events of those contracts to appropriate participants.

End to end blockchain solutions require integration with data, software, and media that live “off chain”. External updates and events can trigger actions on smart contracts. Smart contract events and state changes can then trigger actions and data updates to “off chain” systems and data. These external systems and AI will also need the ability to query attestable data from smart contracts to inform action.

Specifically, there are two areas of integration where guidance is most needed:

Documents and Media: Documents and media do not belong on chain, but business processes often involve images, videos, audio, Office documents, CAD files for 3D printers or other file types.

The common pattern is to generate a unique hash of the media and the metadata that describes it. Those hashes are then placed on a public or private chain. If authenticity of a file is ever questioned, the “off chain” files can be re-hashed at a later time and that hash is compared to the “on chain” hash stored on the blockchain. If the hashes match, the document is authentic, but if so much as a pixel of an image or letter in a document is changed, the hashes will not match and this will make obvious that tampering has occurred.

Today we’re releasing a set of Logic Apps that enable the hashing of files and file related metadata. Also included are smart contracts for files and a file registry to store the hashes on chain.

Logic Apps have been created to deliver this functionality for files added to the most popular sources for documents and media, including Azure Storage, OneDrive, One Drive for Business, SharePoint, Box, Adobe Creative Cloud, and FTP.

Smart Contract Interaction: Getting blockchain off the whiteboard and into production means dealing with the realities of how counterparties interact today. That reality is that Enterprise integration is messy.

Microsoft brings our decades of experience in this area to blockchain. Our work with integrating Enterprise systems began almost two decades ago with the introduction of BizTalk server, and our focus on database integration traces back to our co-development of Open Database Connectivity (ODBC) in the 1990s. All of our experience has been captured and made available in Azure services. This includes 200+ connectors available in Logic Apps and Flow, and the robust capabilities in our data platform.

The Blockchain Application Development Kit includes Workbench integration samples in the following areas:

Logic App Connectors for Blockchain

Today, we are also announcing that we will release a set of Logic App and Flow Connectors to extend these samples to ledgers like Ethereum, Corda, Bitcoin, and others.

“At R3, we are committed to ensuring developers can deploy CorDapps quickly, securely and easily. The Azure Blockchain Development Kit will give our enterprise customers tools to integrate with the applications, software, and devices that people use every day like Outlook, Alexa, SMS, and web UX. Blockchain is moving out of the labs and into everyday business applications.”

– Mike Ward, Head of Product Management, R3

The Ethereum blockchain connector is available today and enables users to deploy contracts, call contract actions, read contract state and trigger other Logic Apps based on events from the ledger.

Deploy

With the mainstreaming of blockchain technology in enterprise software development, organizations are asking for guidance on how to deliver DevOps for smart contracts and blockchain projects.

Common questions include:

My business logic and data schema for that logic is reflected in smart contracts. Smart contracts are written in languages I’m less familiar with like Solidity for Ethereum, and Kotlin for Corda, or Go for Hyperledger Fabric. What tools can I use to develop those in?

How do I do unit testing and debugging on smart contracts?

Many blockchain scenarios reflect multi-party transactions and business workflows. These workflows include signed transactions from multiple parties happening in specific sequences. How do I think about data for test environments in that context?

Smart contracts are deployed to the blockchain, which is immutable. How do I need to think about things such as infrastructure as code, local dev/test, upgrading contracts, etc.?

Blockchain is a data technology shared across multiple organizations in a consortium, what are the impacts on source code control, build and release pipelines in a global, multi-party environment?

While there are some nuances to the approach, the good news is that just like other types of solution development, this model can readily be addressed in a DevOps model.

Today, we’re announcing the release of the whitepaper, “DevOps for Blockchain Smart Contracts.”

“We’re excited to work with Microsoft to create the canonical DevOps experience for blockchain engineers. Our paper, ‘DevOps for Blockchain Smart Contracts’, goes into rigorous detail and provides examples on how to develop blockchain applications with an eye toward CI/CD in consortium environments.”

– Tim Coulter, Founder of Truffle

Complementing the whitepaper is an implementation guide, available through the Azure Blockchain Development Kit, that shows how to implement CI/CD for smart contracts and infrastructure as code using Visual Studio Code, GitHub, Azure DevOps and OSS from Truffle.

A great platform for blockchain application development

The Azure Blockchain Development Kit is the next step in our journey to make developing end to end blockchain applications accessible, fast, and affordable to anyone with an idea. It is built atop our investments in blockchain and connects to the compute, data, messaging, and integration services available in both Azure and the broader Microsoft Cloud to provide a robust palette for a developer to realize their vision.

Logic Apps and Flow deliver a graphical design environment with more than 200 connectors dramatically simplifying the development of end to end blockchain solutions, and Azure Functions enable the rapid integration of custom code.

A serverless approach also reduces costs and management overhead. With no VMs to manage, built-in scalability, and an approachable pricing model the Azure Blockchain Development Kit is within reach of every developer – from enthusiasts to ISVs to enterprises.

Solutions are written using online visual workflow designers and Visual Studio Code, a free download that provides an integrated development environment on Windows, Mac, and Linux.

The resulting applications will run atop a network that has higher rated cloud performance than other large-scale providers and enable federating identities between participants using Azure Active Directory. With Azure, those applications can be deployed to more regions than any other cloud provider and benefit from more certifications.

We look forward to seeing what you’ll build, and we’ll continue to both listen and look for ways to help as we build a decentralized future together.

To learn more about how to use these samples to build and extend blockchain applications, you can find a host of videos on our Channel 9 show Block Talk.

You can also stay up to date with the latest updates from Azure Blockchain by following us on Twitter @MSFTBlockchain.

Posted on November 14, 2018 by sick skills — Leave a comment

New updates and technologies will help businesses do more with AI

As AI breakthroughs abound, businesses look to score benefits

When Arccos Golf launched its first performance tracking system for golfers, it combined the telemetry from sensors and a smartphone app to give players detailed data and feedback about every shot.

Knowing how far and how accurately they could hit the ball under different conditions helped players uncover weaknesses and improve their game. But there was so much more that could be done.

“We had an ‘a-ha moment’ about providing a virtual caddie for every player. Just like a human caddie, ours would know the player, know the course, know the weather and provide the player with a club recommendation,” said Jack Brown, senior vice president of product & software at Arccos Golf. “So we thought, ‘Why don’t we use AI to create a virtual caddie?’”

Posted on November 14, 2018 by sick skills — Leave a comment

Microsoft agrees to acquire conversational AI and bot development company, XOXCO

Conversational AI is quickly becoming a way in which businesses engage with employees and customers: from creating virtual assistants and redesigning customer interactions to using conversational assistants to help employees communicate and work better together. According to Gartner, “By 2020, conversational artificial intelligence will be a supported user experience for more than 50 percent of large, consumer-centric enterprises.”* At Microsoft, we envision a world where natural language becomes the new user interface, enabling people to do more with what they say, type and input, understanding preferences and tasks and modeling experiences based on the way people think and remember.

Today, we are announcing we have signed an agreement to acquire XOXCO, a software product design and development studio known for its conversational AI and bot development capabilities. The company has been paving the way in conversational AI since 2013 and was responsible for the creation of Howdy, the first commercially available bot for Slack that helps schedule meetings, and Botkit, which provides the development tools used by hundreds of thousands of developers on GitHub. Over the years, we have partnered with XOXCO and have been inspired by this work.

We have shared goals to foster a community of startups and innovators, share best practices and continue to amplify our focus on conversational AI, as well as to develop tools for empowering people to create experiences that do more with speech and language.

The Microsoft Bot Framework, available as a service in Azure and on GitHub, supports over 360,000 developers today. With this acquisition, we are continuing to realize our approach of democratizing AI development, conversation and dialog, and integrating conversational experiences where people communicate.

Over the last six months, Microsoft has made several strategic acquisitions to accelerate the pace of AI development. The acquisition of Semantic Machines in May brought a revolutionary new approach to conversational AI. In July, we acquired Bonsai to help reduce the barriers to AI development by combining machine teaching, reinforcement learning and simulation. In September, we acquired Lobe, a company that has created a simple visual interface empowering anyone to develop and apply deep learning and AI models quickly, without writing code. The acquisition of GitHub in October demonstrates our belief in the power of communities to help fuel the next wave of bot development.

Our goal is to make AI accessible and valuable to every individual and organization, amplifying human ingenuity with intelligent technology. To do this, Microsoft is infusing intelligence across all its products and services to extend individuals’ and organizations’ capabilities and make them more productive, providing a powerful platform of AI services and tools that makes innovation by developers and partners faster and more accessible, and helping transform business by enabling breakthroughs to current approaches and entirely new scenarios that leverage the power of intelligent technology.

We’re excited to welcome the XOXCO team and look forward to working with the community to accelerate innovation and help customers capitalize on the many benefits AI can offer.

*Gartner, Is Conversational AI the Only UX You Will Ever Need?, 25 April 2018

Posted on November 14, 2018 by sick skills — Leave a comment

Azure teams up with Carnegie Mellon University to bring the cloud to the Living Edge Laboratory

Edge computing is one of the greatest trends that is not only transforming the cloud market, but creating new opportunities for business and society. At its core, edge computing is about harnessing compute on a device, closest to where insights need to be realized – on a connected car, a piece of machinery, or a remote oil field, for example – so these insights come without delay and with a high-degree of accuracy. This is known as the “intelligent edge” because these devices are constantly learning, often aided by AI and Machine Learning algorithms powered by the intelligent cloud. At Microsoft we see amazing new applications of the intelligent edge and intelligent cloud every day – and yet this opportunity is so expansive – the surface has barely been scratched.

To further advance inquiry and discovery at the edge, today we are announcing Microsoft is donating cloud hardware and services to Carnegie Mellon University’s Living Edge Laboratory. Carnegie Mellon University is recognized as one of the leading global research institutions. Earlier this year, the university announced a $27.5 million semiconductor research initiative to connect edge devices to the cloud. Today’s announcement builds on existing commitments to discovery in the field of edge computing.

The Living Edge Laboratory is a testbed for exploring applications that generate large data volumes and require intense processing with near-instantaneous response times. The lab is designed to open accessibility to the latest innovations in edge computing and advance discovery for edge computing applications across industries. Microsoft will donate an Azure Data Box Edge, Azure Stack partnering with Intel, and Azure credits to do advanced machine learning and AI at the edge.

This new paradigm of cloud computing requires consistency in how an application is developed, to run in the cloud and at the edge. We are building Azure to make this possible. From app platform to AI, security and management, our customers can architect, develop, and run a distributed application as a single, consistent environment.

We offer the most comprehensive portfolio to enable computing at the edge, covering the full spectrum IoT devices and sensors to bringing the full power of the cloud to the edge with Azure Stack. With this spectrum spanning hardware and software, with security and advanced analytics and AI services, Microsoft brings a robust platform for developers to research and create new applications for the edge.

The Living Edge Lab was established over the past year through the Open Edge Computing Initiative, a collective effort dedicated to driving the business opportunities and technologies surrounding edge computing. With the addition of Microsoft products to the lab, faculty and students will be able to use them to develop new applications and compare their performance with other components already in place in the lab. As part of this donation, Microsoft is also joining the Open Edge Computing Initiative.

Students of Carnegie Mellon are already making exciting discoveries and applications powered by Azure AI and ML services at the edge. One of these applications is designed to help visually impaired people to detect objects or people nearby. The video feeds of a stereoscopic camera on a user are transmitted to a nearby cloudlet, and real-time video analytics is used detect obstacles. This information is transmitted back to the user and communicated via vibro-tactile feedback.

Another, OpenRTiST, allows a user to see the world around them in real time, “through the eyes of an artist.” The video feed from the camera of a mobile device is transmitted to a local application, transformed there by a deep neural network trained offline to learn the artistic features of a famous painting, and returned to the user’s device as a video feed. The entire round trip is fast enough to preserve the illusion that the world around the user as displayed on the device is being continuously repainted by the artist.

I encourage you to learn more about Microsoft’s vision for an intelligent cloud and intelligent edge.

This is the beginning of an exciting new chapter of research at Carnegie Mellon – stemming from a collaboration on edge computing that began 10 years ago – and we cannot wait to see what new discoveries and scenarios come to life from the Living Edge Lab.