TECHNOLOGY, How Microsoft research has Craig speak Mundie Chinese

Craig Mundie, Microsoft's chief research and strategy officer, speak not Chinese. But on Tuesday, about a life-like virtual avatar displayed in the company offices in Beijing, that his voice can simulate and speak in other languages.
He said to "what was said in Mandarin today I never recorded", see the demonstration. "But it's my voice." "You have a computer model my voice box."
The virtual avatar, which was developed for translations, is just one of the new technologies that the company at Microsoft research has worked.
Research Group started on Microsoft's Redmond campus, on five other laboratories around the world, and now has more than 850 researchers with doctors. It celebrated its 20th year there on Tuesday, starting with an event at the Microsoft Research Asia plant in Beijing where Mundie said.
Mundie research group of Microsoft monitors, and is also responsible for planning long-term strategy of the company, as far as 20 years in the future. Often, he has promoted the idea of the so-called natural user interfaces, facial expressions to read the work on touch, voice commands, or even a person.
"When we think natural interaction, we think all human senses, emulate" Mundie said in an interview. "Touch, vision, speech synthesis and recognition, opportunity for all of these together operated it be that in the next few years important."
Microsoft's Kinect, an add-on for the Xbox 360 is only current products to this concept allows the play simply with body movements. While Microsoft for Kinect intends to move game and PC are other natural technology for user interfaces in the works. On Tuesday, Microsoft researchers showed the basic features of the object they are looking for to find a picture search tool which pictures by sketch users. The best results will then find the image search by mining in the Internet.
But the natural user interfaces Microsoft builds for virtual environments. Avatars that look not only actual users with photorealistic effects, but can imitate even their voices and approximation which could lip movements speech, life-like offer exchange between users without the need their computers to let Mundie said.
"Another dream, that we have is that I would be able to sit in my Office, please send my avatar to someone in Beijing, and I can speak in English and the avatar in Mandarin in speaks real time," he said. "We want the computer to be a simultaneous translator."
A future game-changer, which is to redesign the market, according to Mundie are natural user interfaces. But to reach that point means smaller technologies and new ways to refine, he said. One of the best examples of this was Kinect, which was the culmination of seven to eight research at Microsoft research.
"There is no reason to believe that we see, these natural elements of the user interface a more integral part of the Windows look,", he said.
On the other hand, it is difficult to forecast, where tablet devices fit into the overall picture of the data processing, Mundie said. He noted that fit in a special area between devices too big fit tablets in one of pocket, but also in the complete computing features in a PC.
"I think there is a whole range of products, which fall into this gap." And that they are applied to a whole range of tasks: read, write, note. "he said."I think, there will be demand for these things and that the tablet form factor with us for a period of time can be. "Or they could be forced out some other more radical technology."

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