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Flash analysis: Xbox One

Thu, 30 May 2013 19:07:28 +0000

On Tuesday, May 21, Microsoft raised the curtain on its first new gaming console in nearly seven years: the Xbox One. In order to better understand how the Xbox One is being received by the larger tech community, we surveyed GigaOM’s own readership on the new offering. So which new feature of the Xbox One was chosen to have the biggest impact? Read this analysis to find out.

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Survey: Share your thoughts on Microsoft’s Xbox One

Jenn Marston — Wed, 22 May 2013 20:18:54 +0000

This Tuesday, Microsoft announced the Xbox One, which the company is calling an “all in one home entertainment system.” Through voice and gesture commands, users will be able to stream music, watch live TV, play games, and access apps. Is this the future of the living room or mere hype? We ask you, GigaOM readers, to weigh in with your thoughts.

Note: Survey results will be posted on GigaOM Pro (subscription required). For survey participants who are not subscription holders, email pro-info@gigaom.com for a copy of the results.

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How to sell a car that doesn’t exist yet: Show it with Kinect

Kevin C. Tofel — Wed, 22 Aug 2012 21:13:27 +0000

Microsoft’s innovative Kinect accessory has made the leap from video games to robots and even 3-D human holograms. Now it’s being used to sell cars that don’t yet exist. Nissan needed to find a way let potential buyers see its 2013 Pathfinder, but it didn’t have the actual cars in showrooms or ready for auto shows. Kinect to rescue!

While seeing an actual vehicle you can touch or sit in would be ideal, I like what Nissan worked out with Microsoft. The two partnered to create an interactive, virtual reality experience using 3-D graphics of the new Pathfinder combined with voie and gesture-based controls. For example, you can “reach out” and open the door to the Pathfinder by simulating the gesture in front of a Kinect sensor. Walk towards the Kinect and you “enter” the vehicle where you can look around inside. See how it works here:

Someday we’ll likely to use a holodeck such as envisioned in the Star Trek: TNG series where we’re surrounded by interactive sensors and holograms as if they we were somewhere else. For now, however, Kinect is showing a glimpse of that future with a virtual car shopping experience. Besides, I’d give up on the holodeck idea if we could use the Kinect to accelerate or completely remove the car price haggling experience!

Interested in the 2013 Pathfinder experience with Kinect? Nissan will be rolling out the Pathfinder Kinect Experience to 16 dealerships in 13 states, so keep an eye out in your local area.

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Analyzing the wearable computing market

Jody Ranck — Tue, 31 Jul 2012 06:55:25 +0000

What do Google’s Project Glass, Zephyr Technology and the Hug Shirt have in common? All are examples of wearables: computing devices that are always on, always accessible and easily worn on the body. With the growth of sensors and microelectronics, the potential uses of wearable-computing technologies now reach to health and fitness, gaming, fashion, disabilities and augmented reality. Most importantly, the widespread adoption of wearables will drive the form function and market for mobiles in vital ways. This report provides a historical background, an overview of the technologies in the wearables market and possible future trends as the market expands.

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Takeaways from connected consumer’s second quarter

Thu, 19 Jul 2012 06:55:44 +0000

Tablets featured prominently in the connected consumer space during the second quarter of 2012, both as a product category in their own right and as a component of broader platform strategies by the major OS providers. Meanwhile Apple added AirPlay streaming to Mac OS, and Microsoft made an aggressive bid to dominate the second screen by introducing SmartGlass apps. The period also saw important moves by Facebook to broaden its monetization strategy and an investigation by federal antitrust authorities into pay-TV licensing practices and their impact on the emerging online-video business. This quarterly wrap-up discusses these developments as well as offers trends and topics to watch in the second half of 2012 and beyond.

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Who and what to watch in the new era of the living room

Thu, 31 May 2012 06:55:44 +0000

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Samsung’s saucy Smart TV ad: “Look, don’t touch”

Kevin C. Tofel — Thu, 24 May 2012 18:32:58 +0000

Samsung has a recent history of mocking others in its ads — some poked fun at iPhone users — but now Samsung is using humor to tout its gesture controlled line of Smart TV sets. Thanks to an integrated web cam atop the display, consumers can control video playback, volume and other functions without touching the set.

To show how — dare I say it — sexy this is, the company’s latest ad shows what happens when you put a female model wearing a camisole top and shorts that are two sizes too small in front of a Smart TV. Of course this is in front of a window where everyone can see her. Hilarity and racy themes ensue. See for yourself how Samsung smartly makes good us of it’s “Look, don’t touch” tagline. Oh and be on the lookout for a previous comedic ad star: It looks like the Old Spice guy is in the mix!

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Beam me up: Kinect powers 3-D human holograms!

Kevin C. Tofel — Tue, 08 May 2012 15:21:38 +0000

Just as the older members of my family are finally getting used to Skype and FaceTime, along comes a 3-D hologram concept project! Dubbed the TeleHuman and developed by the Human Research Lab at Queens University in Ontario, the system uses six Microsoft Kinect sensors and a 3-D projector inside a 1.8 meter tall acrylic cylinder.

The end result? You can walk around a real-time visual representation of the person at the other end of the conversation. Watch the video demo that I found through the Digital Trends site:

The technology isn’t limited to video conferencing though. By applying the technology to a different application, the Human Research Lab has also shown off the BodiPod; a 3-D visualization of the human body. Viewers can walk around the body and even have different body layers appear based on how close they’re standing to the BodiPod.

The camera resolution in Microsoft’s Kinect isn’t stellar — just 640 x 480 for both the RGB and infrared sensors — so video imaging isn’t the highest quality. Still, the concept is sound and as improved sensors at lower costs appear, we could see vastly better pictures from a future Kinect or other similar sensors. We’re not yet at the point of using 3-D holograms in everyday communications, but as this concept shows, the future isn’t that far off.

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6 signs Microsoft has got its mojo back

Barb Darrow — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 18:22:30 +0000

Two star hires and a well-reviewed phone-and-tablet OS do not necessarily remake a company, but they do ease the perception — prevalent in recent years — that Microsoft is on its last legs.

There appears to be a big change in that perception compared to last year when there were public calls, based on Microsoft’s sluggish stock performance, for CEO Steve Ballmer to step down. Several attendees at this week’s Structure: Data 2012 conference seemed newly bullish on Microsoft’s prospects. Here are six reasons why:

1: Embrace of Hadoop

Even hard-core Microsoft skeptics are impressed with the company’s new found Hadoop love. Since October, the company’s worked with Hortonworks to make Hadoop work well with Windows — sacrificing its own Dryad big data framework in the process. Hadoop is already available in beta on Microsoft Windows Azure. (Azure also won a big customer in Movideo which is moving its online video archives to the Microsoft platform.)

2: Works better with others

Kay Young, CEO of Mortar Data, a New York-based startup, said he’s seen a big change in Microsoft’s behavior towards other companies and that has softened his previous perception of the company. “I came up hating Microsoft and hating the fact that I had to use Internet Explorer but things have changed,” he said. “I wonder how much Ballmer has to do with that.”

Microsoft has been reaching out to help startups beyond Seattle, hosting events and seminars for startups at its New England Research and Development (NERD) center in Cambridge, Mass., for example.

3: High-profile hires

Bringing aboard a highly respected technologist like former Yahoo chief scientist Raghu Ramakrishnan and the re-hiring of James Whitaker, who had left for Google, are two signs that Microsoft can attract top talent. It seemed for a while that there was a one-way flow of talent out of Redmond.

4: Strong Windows 8

Even Microsoft haters admit that Windows 8 looks like a for-real OS for tablets, phones and desktops. Windows 8′s inclusion of Hyper-V also will give Microsoft a much stronger story in desktop virtualization, and Hyper-V in general is more powerful on the server side. ”We’ve seen people with multi-hypervisor strategies who walked away from Hyper-V adding it back in,” said Dave Asprey, VP of cloud security for Trend Micro, another Structure: Data attendee.

5: Consumer credibility

Xbox and now Kinect have become the focal points in many homes, giving Microsoft some much needed heft in the hot consumer technology market. The company’s sweetheart deal with Nokia on mobile phones could very well give Windows a much-needed boost in mobile. ”I think Nokia might save them there,” Asprey said.

The new Windows Phone interface is more intuitive, more what a phone interface should be than the iPhone’s iOS, said Dave Ryan, CTO of General Dynamics Information Technology, another Structure: Data attendee. Of course, Microsoft has a lot of ground to make up in htis market where it lags far behind iPhone and Android.

6: Stock price

A recovering share price can cover a lot of flaws and Microsoft stock has done better of late trading at about $32 per share, up 20 percent on the year. Nasdaq is up 16 percent for the same period. People don’t call for a CEO’s head if the stock is heading in the right direction.

Photo courtesy of Flickr user Microsoft Sweden

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Microsoft software plus Kinect equals robotic butler

Kevin C. Tofel — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 20:56:55 +0000

Microsoft made it easier to create robots on Thursday by launching the final release of its Microsoft Robotics Developer Studio 4, which moves out of beta status. The free software can power moving robots that can “see” and understand their surroundings with the Xbox Kinect accessory. Using a Windows laptop, Kinect sensor and robotic base, developers can create relatively inexpensive but functional robots for the home or office.

Using the $1,250 Eddie Robot Platform from Parallax, Harsha Kikkeri, a member of the Microsoft robotics team, built a robot butler of sorts: The device can follow him on command. Kikkeri notes that he programmed the robot to follow because that’s what young children do once they become mobile. It’s a clever example and gets better when the robotic butler serves up drinks and snacks to Kikkeri’s pals. For the Star Wars fans out there: Shades of R2-D2 on Jabba’s pleasure barge, no?

When the Kinect arrived, I had a feeling it wouldn’t be limited to the Xbox 360 gaming console. Why? It added another set of sensors, similar to those found in today’s smartphones, that I suggested could power robots (subscription required). Since I wrote that, we’ve seen Kinect used in robots ranging from $499 all the way up to $400,000.

All it takes is a Windows laptop, the programming knowledge and a way to bring movement to a Kinect sensor, and you’ve got the foundation for a useful robot. Once you add in a near-limitless amount of data — support for cloud-based connectivity and information retrieval — you’ve got a robot that not only can see its surroundings but can also determine what the various objects around it are. Maybe Kikkeri’s next step will be to have his robotic butler tell you how many calories are in the drinks it delivers.

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