Overview of interesting programs from Microsoft Research
Microsoft Research (MSR) is a division of Microsoft Corporation, created in 1991 to research various issues and topics in the field of computer science. Microsoft Research brings together 800 researchers in six global laboratories around the world.
The main difference from the rest of the divisions is that there are no deadlines, hard TK and everything else, but there is research, crazy ideas and a lot of time for their implementation.
I really like to follow the development of MSR and now I want to talk about some of the programs that I often use.
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A program that allows you to make cool collages from your photos. All you need is to select a folder with a photo, the number of photos to be processed and the size of the output file. The program will do the rest.
The principle of operation is that it analyzes the color characteristics of images and finds the best way to overlay them, while imposing transitions and gradients. I want to note that each time the program produces different results, so experimenting, you can get a great photo album with collages ( in Habré ).
Website: research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/cambridge/projects/autocollage
The WorldWide Telescope program allows astronomy lovers to explore the starry sky, get information about the solar system, galaxies, nebulae and other space objects.
The new service combines terabytes of graphical and related data collected by major ground-based observatories and space telescopes, including the Chandra orbital X-ray observatory, the Hubble and Spitzer telescopes. Users can view images taken at different wavelengths (in the visible, ultraviolet, infrared, X-ray ranges), zoom in on image areas, track the position of space objects at different times, etc.
Microsoft's online telescope also allows you to create your own web tour of outer space and invite relatives, acquaintances or work colleagues to visit them. In addition, users of the service will be able to attend sightseeing tours with detailed comments developed by experts.
Screenshot of the program:
Website: www.worldwidetelescope.org/Home.aspx
Pex (publication on Habré , in a blog ) is a tool (Add-In for Visual Studio) for testing code from Microsoft Research.
Pex analyzes the program code and automatically generates the required number of unit tests. The result is a familiar Visual Studio unit test project with a high percentage of code coverage (theoretically 100%).
Pex performs a systematic analysis, checks for boundary conditions, as well as exceptions that can be debugged. Pex makes it possible to perform Parameterized Unit Testing, which undoubtedly reduces testing costs.
Site: research.microsoft.com/en-us/downloads/d2279651-851f-4d7a-bf05-16fd7eb26559
... already implemented or will be implemented in the near future in official Microsoft products.
First of all, this is F # - a functional language from Microsoft, which is included in VS2010 by default.
Site: research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/cambridge/projects/fsharp
It is also impossible not to say about the wonderful development of Code Contracts , which allows you to write code based on so-called contracts, some "rules" and "agreements" of different parts of the code among themselves. Code Contracts will be included in .NET 4.0.
Example:
The difference between a simple check and a contract is that in the latter case the code will not compile if it turns out that some method “violates” the contract.
Website: research.microsoft.com/en-us/projects/contracts
I propose to pay attention to such projects:
And which Microsoft Research projects are you using?
The main difference from the rest of the divisions is that there are no deadlines, hard TK and everything else, but there is research, crazy ideas and a lot of time for their implementation.
I really like to follow the development of MSR and now I want to talk about some of the programs that I often use.
Microsoft Research AutoCollage 2008
')
A program that allows you to make cool collages from your photos. All you need is to select a folder with a photo, the number of photos to be processed and the size of the output file. The program will do the rest.
The principle of operation is that it analyzes the color characteristics of images and finds the best way to overlay them, while imposing transitions and gradients. I want to note that each time the program produces different results, so experimenting, you can get a great photo album with collages ( in Habré ).
Website: research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/cambridge/projects/autocollage
WorldWide Telescope
The WorldWide Telescope program allows astronomy lovers to explore the starry sky, get information about the solar system, galaxies, nebulae and other space objects.
The new service combines terabytes of graphical and related data collected by major ground-based observatories and space telescopes, including the Chandra orbital X-ray observatory, the Hubble and Spitzer telescopes. Users can view images taken at different wavelengths (in the visible, ultraviolet, infrared, X-ray ranges), zoom in on image areas, track the position of space objects at different times, etc.
Microsoft's online telescope also allows you to create your own web tour of outer space and invite relatives, acquaintances or work colleagues to visit them. In addition, users of the service will be able to attend sightseeing tours with detailed comments developed by experts.
Screenshot of the program:
Website: www.worldwidetelescope.org/Home.aspx
Pex
Pex (publication on Habré , in a blog ) is a tool (Add-In for Visual Studio) for testing code from Microsoft Research.
Pex analyzes the program code and automatically generates the required number of unit tests. The result is a familiar Visual Studio unit test project with a high percentage of code coverage (theoretically 100%).
Pex performs a systematic analysis, checks for boundary conditions, as well as exceptions that can be debugged. Pex makes it possible to perform Parameterized Unit Testing, which undoubtedly reduces testing costs.
Site: research.microsoft.com/en-us/downloads/d2279651-851f-4d7a-bf05-16fd7eb26559
Particularly successful projects ...
... already implemented or will be implemented in the near future in official Microsoft products.
First of all, this is F # - a functional language from Microsoft, which is included in VS2010 by default.
Site: research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/cambridge/projects/fsharp
It is also impossible not to say about the wonderful development of Code Contracts , which allows you to write code based on so-called contracts, some "rules" and "agreements" of different parts of the code among themselves. Code Contracts will be included in .NET 4.0.
Example:
public TargetResult LaunchMissle(Target target)
{
// , target null
Contract.Requires(target != null);
return new TargetResult();
}The difference between a simple check and a contract is that in the latter case the code will not compile if it turns out that some method “violates” the contract.
Website: research.microsoft.com/en-us/projects/contracts
More projects!
I propose to pay attention to such projects:
- Social Web Experience is a plugin that analyzes the content of the current web page and compares its content with your activity on social networks.
- Dminor is a language for data modeling.
- Microsoft Site Analyzer can help build a sitemap, structure data, and more.
- HD View allows you to view huge images on the web
- DryadLINQ is a powerful development environment that allows ordinary programmers to use their skills to create parallel computing applications in large-scale PC clusters.
And which Microsoft Research projects are you using?
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/83177/
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