Advertising

The Seattle Times Company

NWjobs | NWautos | NWhomes | NWsource | Free Classifieds | seattletimes.com

The Seattle Times

Business / Technology


Our network sites seattletimes.com | Advanced

Originally published March 7, 2007 at 12:00 AM | Page modified March 7, 2007 at 11:10 AM

E-mail article     Print view

TechFest attracts many creatures

Microsoft is sharing some of its far-out visions for the future of technology this week during TechFest, an annual science fair held by...

Microsoft is sharing some of its far-out visions for the future of technology this week during TechFest, an annual science fair held by the company's advanced-research group. A sample was shown to the media and customers Tuesday, before the show opens to Microsoft employees today and Thursday.

One of the demonstrations was actually warm and fuzzy. Researcher John Douceur, left, holding Cleo the cat, showed a system for verifying that a person and not a data-scouring computer is visiting a Web site.

Many sites ask visitors to read a series of wavy letters, but that's getting easier for hackers to break. As an alternative, Douceur and colleagues developed Asirra, a system that displays animal images and asks visitors to identify which are dogs and which are cats.

Asirra uses images from Petfinder.com, a database of animals available for adoption, and gives visitors the option of adopting one of the animals.

TechFest also highlighted several funky systems for handling messages and images, developed by a Microsoft research team from Cambridge, England.

One is TimeMill, bottom left, a fairy-tale-like mirror with a built-in camera, based on a Tablet PC. When you spin the wheel, it takes your picture. Spin backward and it displays images of people who've used the device in the past.

Another Cambridge project is Text2Paper, bottom right, a family calendar system that receives and prints text messages such as appointments and shopping lists that are sent from phones. They are printed on clear stickers that can be placed on an adjacent calendar.

Each has a bar code, so others can take a photo of the stickers and have the information synchronized with their devices.

Seattle Times technology columnist Brier Dudley

Copyright © 2007 The Seattle Times Company

More Business & Technology headlines...

E-mail article Print view      Share:    Digg     Newsvine

advertising

Nintendo re-enlists Mario, savior of video-game industry

Verizon-Frontier deal stirs concern among consumers

Brier Dudley: 'Guitar Hero' founder excited about future

Gaps for consumers in Democrat health care bills

Hutch gets $10M from Bezos family for immunotherapy research

Advertising

Video

Real Salt Lake wins MLS Cup
Real Salt Lake defeated the Los Angeles Galaxy with penalty kicks after 120 minutes of play at Qwest Field in Seattle.

Raw Video | Real Salt Lake receives the MLS Cup trophy
Raw Video | Real Salt Lake fans celebrate
Real Salt Lake fans enter Qwest Field
Raw Video | MLS Cup Opening Ceremony
LA Galaxy's David Beckham
Real Salt Lake's Kyle Beckerman
MLS trophy arrives in Seattle
Chittenden Locks Inspection
Full interview with New Moon actors

Marketplace

Open Houses

Find this weekend's open house listings.
Or search by location:

nwautos

Less is more: Group rides, good gas mileage have led to a scooter swarm in Seattlenew
Local riders say they've seen a surge in scooter interest in recent years, mostly from people wanting another commuting option. Seattle now ranks as o...
Post a comment

Advertising