innovation day event guide
TRANSCRIPT
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Welcome to Microsoft’s 4th Innovation Day!
For the fourth consecutive year, we are pleased to welcome you to Innovation Day. This is our chance
to show you some of the newest innovative technology available, and in the making, from the Microsoft
research centers around the world, as well as from our partners.
This year we focus on Living and Building Europe’s Digital Future - taking a closer look at the digital
lifestyle, how innovation influences our everyday lives, and how European industry can continue inno-
vating while protecting citizens’ interests.
I welcome you to join our keynote session and afternoon break-out sessions, discussing how govern-
ments can help build a digital future, and our exhibition of Microsoft and partner technologies span-
ning, among others, the areas of health, banking, retail and the home.
I also invite you to discover our permanent exhibition demos in our Executive Briefing Center for
European Innovation, which is open throughout the day.
We are delighted you were able to attend our event,
Best Regards,
Jean-Philippe Courtois, President of Microsoft International
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Innovation Day – Activities throughout the day
Activities during Innovation Day take place both in the Parc du Cinquantenaire and The Brussels Microsoft ExecutiveBriefing Center (EBC) for European Innovation, located next to the park at 85 Avenue des Nerviens.
Park Venue:
Our venue in the park plays host to the morning plenary session with keynote speeches and panel discussion, as well as Policybreak-out sessions, press briefings and the extensive exhibition of exciting demos in the adjacent tent.
At the EBC:
Microsoft’s Executive Briefing Center houses permanent technology demos. Tours will be organized every thirty minutes withthe in-house Microsoft professionals.
Please contact the information desk for further information either in the tent or directly at the EBC
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The Brussels Microsoft Executive Briefing Center(EBC) for European Innovation
Located at the heart of the European Institutions in Brussels, the EBC offers a platform to engage with European GovernmentOfficials, Public Sector & Education customers and industry partners. At the EBC, Microsoft and its European partners show-case innovative technology solutions that enable governments and the education community in Europe to create richer andmore effective information technology infrastructures and services to the benefit of businesses, educators and citizens.
The Brussels Executive Briefing Center has two areas of competence:
- Center of Excellence for Public Services and eGovernment Solutions which demonstrates strategies and solutions and sha-res best practices to help governments develop strong, sustainable information technology infrastructures that deliver easeof use, value through innovative technology and a clear roadmap for future developments.
- School Technology Innovation Center which provides a hands-on demonstration and learning laboratory for educatorswhere innovative teaching practices can be shared and where information, training and equipment is provided to enhancethe use of information and communications technologies in classrooms and curricula.
Demos presented at the EBC include:
Photosynth | We Connect | IP TV | Education solutions
> http://www.microsoft.com/ebc/brussels.mspx
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Innovation Day – Park Venue
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Innovation Day – Park Venue – exhibition Area
01. Microsoft Industry Innovations Group . . . . . . . . . . . 23
02. Living Tomorrow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
03. Video Collage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
04. Windows Home Server . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
05. Microsoft Silverlight . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
06. ROBOSOFT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
07. Shake2Talk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
08. HomeBook . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
09. Digital Postcard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
10. Big Board . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
11. Robust Location Search . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
12. ThinSight . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
13. Remedy Entertainment Ltd. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
14. Virtual Events . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
15. Digital Libraries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
16. PLANETS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
17. HDView . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
18. Research Desktop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
19. Interactive Software Federation of Europe (ISFE) . . . . 13
20. Microsoft Entertainment & Devices . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
21. YDreams . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
22. eCopy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
23. iConcept . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
24. SANAKO Corporation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
25. SIVECO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
26. Winvision . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
27a. VANERUM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
27b. SMART Technologies ULC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
28. Microsoft Windows Mobile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
29. BBC i Player - SlingBox . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
30. Accessibility Kit for SharePoint (AKS) . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
31. SeniorPC project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
32. Microsoft Health Solutions Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
33. Voices for Innovation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
34. Imagine Cup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
35. Nortel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
36. Microsoft Protocol Programs Europe . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
37. PLAYALL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
38. Microsoft “Connected TV” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
39. Microsoft Strategic Prototyping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
40. Microsoft Language Development Center (MLDC) . . . 24
41. Learning To Race . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
42. Skinkers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
43. Boku: Lightweight Programming for Kids . . . . . . . . . 27
44. Imasoft . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
45. Microsoft Child Exploitation Tracking System (CETS) . . 14
46. Microsoft Development Center Copenhagen (MDCC) . 15
47. Microsoft Development Center Serbia (MDCS) . . . . . 16
48. European Microsoft Innovation Center (EMIC) / Ikerlan . 10
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eCopy – Today – 22
eCopy brings paper-based information from your copier into business processes. The award-winning tech-nology saves time and money while reducing document compliance and security concerns. Additionally,the eCopy Suite works with your existing and future application infrastructures enabling the everyday userto easily operate in a familiar working environment.
eCopy provides an easy-to-use, standard document capture operating platform across copier brands soanyone can use the same scanning user interface at any of an organization’s copiers. Since 1992, theeCopy Suite has helped thousands of organizations to easily access, modify, distribute, and share paper-based documents improving collaboration.
Email: [email protected]
European Microsoft Innovation Center (EMIC) – Future – 48
Multimedia Recommendations: A new dynamic
With so many programs on television and so much multimedia on the Internet there must always be some-thing available that interests us. How do we find it? The European Microsoft Innovation Center (EMIC) isresearching how to solve this “crisis of choice”. EMIC’s Recommender System provides personal recommen-dations tailored to your specific interests. The more you use it the more it knows about your preferencesand uses them to provide more relevant content. The researchers at the European Microsoft InnovationCenter (EMIC), Germany, innovate in the areas of Web Services, Mobile Computing, Security, SoftwareVerification, eHome.
Please contactTim McGrath, Senior Program Manager, European Microsoft Innovation Center (EMIC)Ron Mevissen, Development Lead Home-Team, European Microsoft Innovation Center (EMIC)
www.microsoft.com/EMIC
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Health Management: “Digital Doctor”
Ikerlan’s Health Management Application monitors and manages health conditions of family members athome. Body temperature, blood pressure, heart rate, ECG and weight are measured. The application candetect and provide information on health problems; the patient’s historic data may be sent to the hospi-tal. The European Microsoft Innovation Center (EMIC) developed a core infrastructure that allows Ikerlan’sapplication to work with a wide range of devices. Ikerlan is a Spanish private, non-profit TechnologicalResearch Centre, with a vocation for public service. The researchers of the European Microsoft InnovationCenter (EMIC), Germany, innovate in the areas of Web Services, Mobile Computing, Security, SoftwareVerification, eHome.
Please contactTim McGrath, Senior Program Manager at European Microsoft Innovation Center (EMIC)Natividad Herrasti, Project Leader, Ikerlan
iConcept – Today – 23
iConcept is a UK-based company, dedicated to the promotion and development of innovative technolo-gies. iConcept specialized in the area of Education and has recently designed a new modular concept forMobile Classroom - nick-named "eM3" - that provides unrivalled storage capacity, flexibility and mobility.This solution anticipates the needs of professionals from the education and training arenas but can alsorespond to local governments and industry needs.
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Imagine Cup – Today – 34
The Imagine Cup is a Microsoft-sponsored competition consisting of a number of different challenges toencourage creative and technological innovations among university students worldwide. It challenges stu-dents to imagine a better world enabled by their own genius, creativity and energy, and provides oppor-tunities for participation in the future of technology, software and computing. Teams develop innovativeprojects that offer practical applicability and present real-world solutions to real-world problems.
More than 65,000 students from over 100 countries competed in the 2006 competition, culminating in theworldwide finals in India in August 2006. Students were tasked with using their creative passion, technolo-gical knowledge and entrepreneurial spirit to help solve one of the planet’s toughest challenges namely to“Imaging a world where technology enables us to live healthier lives”.
www.imaginecup.com
Imasoft – Today – 44
This company specializes in software and systems for police and intelligence agencies, and other custo-mers within the field of law enforcement. CrimeSceneNet is a Windows Vista-based product which willenable police and law enforcement agencies to create panoramic, three dimensional, digital representa-tions of real crime scenes, enabling forensic and other evidence to be plotted accurately and investigationscenarios to be analyzed.
www.imasoft.dk
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Interactive Software Federation of Europe (ISFE) – Today – 19
The Interactive Software Federation of Europe (ISFE) was established in 1998 to represent the interests ofthe interactive software sector with regard to the European Union and international institutions and to helpthe interactive software industry achieve its full potential in Europe and the markets beyond.
Initially founded by the national interactive software trade associations in the UK, France, Germany and theNetherlands, ISFE grew in January 2002 to include any company representing the industry within the 27Member States plus Norway, Iceland, Switzerland and Liechtenstein. Today, ISFE membership comprises 13major publishers of interactive software and 13 interactive software trade associations throughout Europe.The ISFE secretariat is located in Brussels and managed by Patrice Chazerand who is secretary general.
www.isfe.eu
Living Tomorrow – Tomorrow – 02
Living Tomorrow is a meeting place for innovative companies where they can integrate their products, ser-vices and technologies in a real-life and visionary way. Living Tomorrow Research, existing of an integra-tion- and synergy lab stimulates and coordinates synergies between the partners in an open innovationmodel. Social, economic and technological developments are continuously observed and are convertedinto realistic and recognizable applications. Discover some of our developments such as the Smart Board,the Wellness Cocoon and the Intelligent Health Mirror at the Living Tomorrow expo stand.
Globally, over 100 leading-edge companies collaborate with Living Tomorrow. Some of the partners areMicrosoft, Delhaize, ING Bank, DuPont de Nemours, Deloitte, Volvo Car Corporations, Unilever, Siemens,Bosch, etc
www.livingtomorrow.com
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Microsoft Child Exploitation Tracking System (CETS) – Today – 45
The Child Exploitation Tracking System (CETS) is a unique software tool that helps governments store, search,share and analyze evidence in child exploitation cases across police agencies, helping protect children fromexploitation online and making possible more effective identification and prosecution of offenders.
Microsoft has invested more than $9 million (U.S.) to create CETS, which was developed by MicrosoftCanada in conjunction with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the Toronto Police Service. As ofNovember 2007, CETS has been deployed in Canada, Chile, Brazil, Indonesia, Italy, Romania and in theUnited Kingdom and is being used by more than 400 investigators worldwide. More than 10 other coun-tries are in various stages of implementing or have expressed interest in the system. We continue to colla-borate with governments and law enforcement agencies worldwide on the broader implementation of CETS.
Microsoft offers the CETS application at no cost to law enforcement agencies around the world. Throughcybergrants, Microsoft donates all standard server software required to deploy the CETS application.
For more information on the Child Exploitation Tracking System,please contact [email protected]
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Microsoft Development Center Copenhagen (MDCC) – Future – 46
Eliminating the complexity of Sales and Operations Planning by a user friendly interface in Microsoft Dynamics AX
Planning and forecasting are ongoing challenges for manufacturing companies, who face costly overstockor low fulfilment leading to customers’ dissatisfaction whenever miscalculations occur. According to theAberdeen Group, only about 16 percent of manufacturing companies use a best of breed solution today,but analysts emphasize that companies could improve their bottom line in record time by taking advan-tage of technologies such as Sales & Operations Planning.
Especially in the midmarket, the planning processes of many companies have not evolved past manipula-ting spreadsheets, but with Microsoft Dynamics AX S&OP they will gain access to very sophisticated plan-ning tools based on SQL algorithms and the LP Solvers – all wrapped in the familiar interfaces of Excel andShare Point.
Manufacturers need to be able to plan even before a sales pipeline exists to ensure a cost-optimizedmanufacturing process and the best possible time-to-customer scenario. In recent years, planning hasbecome much more complex for many midmarket companies whose supply-chains often cross continents.With Sales & Operations Planning, historical data from Microsoft Dynamics AX and demand forecasts fromthe sales force are fed into a demand planning tool. The results are calculated into scenarios, which allowexecutive management to weigh options and adjust marketing plans according to their final sales and ope-rations plan, derived from the Microsoft Dynamics AX tool.
www.microsoft.com/danmark/om/mdcc
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Microsoft Development Center Serbia (MDCS) – Future – 47
Microsoft Development Center Serbia was founded in September 2005 and has since grown into a worldcenter of excellence for machine learning, UI Innovation and scientific computing. We are working on someof the most exciting and innovative projects today: handwriting recognizers for Tablet PC, mathematicalexpressions recognizer and math input UI, OCR recognition and document layout analysis engines andspatial geometry libraries for SQL Server. As a component provider to major Microsoft product lines ourwork will improve the lives and reach millions of users across the world.
Microsoft Development Center Serbia
1. Math handwriting recognizer and input UI2. Handwriting language recognizers for Tablet PC3. Document layout analysis engine
Handwriting is the most natural and efficient way of inputting mathematical expressions into applications.MDCS is developing software which takes handwritten math input and with the help of a rich correctionexperience converts it to typeset form. This enables numerous enduser benefitting scenarios, from writingmath expressions in documents and converting handwritten notes to typeset form to end-to-end solutionsof math problems.
The development of handwriting recognizers is an expensive and lengthy process. Currently handwritingrecognizers for Tablet PC exist only for major world languages. In order to bring the full benefit of TabletPC computing to a much larger end-user base, MDCS is working on streamlining the handwriting recogni-zer development process and applying it to development of recognizers for a large number of Europeanlanguages. We are currently developing recognizers for Serbian (both Latin and Cyrillic alphabets),Croatian, Russian, Romanian, Czech and Catalan.
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Digitalizing printed books is only the first step in creating resourceful and manageable electronic materials.In cooperation with a number of Microsoft development groups MDCS is developing software that performsOCR and book structure analysis with the idea to considerably improve book searching and navigation andunleash the full potential of the electronic book formats.
Center of excellence for machine learning, UI Innovation and scientific computing
Component technology provider to major Microsoft product lines:Windows, Office, SQL Server, Book Search
Technology:Handwriting recognition, Tablet PC, OCR, Document Layout Analysis, SQL Server Spatial
www.microsoft.com/scg/mdcs
Microsoft Entertainment & Devices – Today – 20
The Entertainment & Devices Division of Microsoft, the home of Xbox 360 and Xbox Live, is strongly com-mitted to giving parents the means to choose the most appropriate gaming and entertainment experiencefor their family, both off and online, and offers tools to control access by their children to appropriate gamecontent and online interactions, to monitor the time they spend on interactive entertainment and to helpthem feel comfortable with Microsoft technology.
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Microsoft “Connected TV” – Today – 38
Microsoft Mediaroom Overview
Microsoft Mediaroom is a multimedia software platform for broadband service providers that enablesconsumers to get the best, most personalised, connected TV and entertainment experiences. The platformenables consumers to easily find and watch what they want, when and where they want, with services suchas remote DVR recording from a mobile phone, or Web-connected PC and personal media sharing (sha-ring digital photos and music stored on PCs in the home to be viewed on your TV). A comprehensive, inte-grated solution, Microsoft Mediaroom helps service providers to reduce the costs and complexity of wor-king with multiple vendors to assemble and integrate often incompatible components. More than 20 of theworld's leading telecommunications companies have selected the Microsoft Mediaroom platform to deli-ver connected TV services in commercial and trial deployments.
English: www.microsoftmediaroom.comGerman: www.microsoftmediaroom.deFrench: www.microsoftmediaroom.fr
Windows Media Center Overview
Your entertainment, ready when you are. Windows Media Center makes your home or office a connectedentertainment center. Included only in Windows Vista Home Premium and Windows Vista Ultimate, thisversatile and dynamic set of features allows you to: View custom slide shows set to music, watch DVDs andhome movies, browse your music collection by cover art, organize photos and create albums.
Make Windows Media Center shine! When you add an optional TV tuner and remote, you can: Watch,pause, and rewind live TV shows, schedule and record TV shows and movies for later viewing and expe-rience your digital media outside of your home office by accessing your music, pictures, and shows throughyour Xbox 360.
www.windowsvista.com/mediacenter
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HD DVD and HDi™ Overview
Welcome to HD DVD, the next generation of DVD! HD DVD is how your HD television lives up to its fullcinematic potential with stunning 1080p high definition video that is 6x the resolution of standard DVDs,up to 7.1 channel surround sound for immersive audio experience, and awesome advanced interactivityfeatures using Microsoft HDi™ that take you behind the scenes like never before. HDi™, Microsoft’s imple-mentation of the HD DVD interactivity layer, offers advanced viewing features not possible on standarddefinition DVDs. Filmmakers and producers now have an extremely flexible technology to add features thatmake the movie come to life in new ways. With HDi, you can add enhanced features like picture in picture,interactive menus, and web connectivity to download extra content and access community sharing sites.HD DVD with HDi is endless entertainment right in your home.
Industry: www.thisishddvd.comConsumer: www.thelookandsoundofperfect.comEMEA : http://www.hddvdeurope.com
Innovative Broadcasting Technologies:
Slingbox™ and BBC iPlayer™ – Today – 29
The technologies and business models from the previously separate worlds of broadcasting, telecommuni-cations and computing are converging and forming new combinations. This demonstration will illustratesome of the possibilities by showing how the Slingbox™ enables consumers to watch any program theyreceive on their living room TV whilst away from home, using either their computer or their mobile phone.It will also illustrate how some of the more forward-thinking public service broadcasters are embracing thenew technologies to provide new ways to deliver their traditional broadcasting services. The BBC iPlayer™allows viewers to catch up on programs they may have missed by downloading them over the Internet towatch on their PC, up to seven days after they were broadcast.
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Windows Home Server – Today – 04
Do you have multiple PCs with increasingly large amounts of digital photos, music, video, and documents?Is protecting, organizing, and connecting this digital media becoming a seemingly impossible task? Theanswer to your digital dilemmas has arrived. Take a quick look.
Windows Home Server features at a glanceYour family's digital memories and media organized in one central hub - Home PCs backed up daily,automatically - Simple recovery of lost files or even entire PCs - Complete access from networked PCsto all your Windows Home Server files - A personalized Web address for sharing your photos andhome videos - Easy and quick setup - Expandable storage space for future use - Innovative third-partyapplications
Simple to set up and easy to use, Windows Home Server helps you safely store and share your family'sdigital valuables all in one place. It's the hub that keeps your family connected, whether they're in the sameroom, or spread across Europe.
Microsoft Windows Mobile – Today – 28
Windows Mobile 6 offers a number of powerful features:• Stay connected to your e-mail, calendar, and contacts. • Be productive read and compose Microsoft Word Mobile files, make Microsoft Excel Mobile charts,
and view Microsoft PowerPoint presentations. • Find what you need quickly and easily including business listings, maps and directions with Windows
Mobile’s powerful search and filtering features. • Get access to corporate networks for data and documents stored on file shares and SharePoint sites. • Fit your style with a variety of designs ranging from touch screen devices with slide out keyboards to
full-keyboard smartphones or flip phones. • Now receive HTML e-mail support, improved security and encryption, greater integration with
Microsoft products including direct SharePoint® intranet access from e-mail links and superiorconnectivity to Windows Vista™.
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Accessibility Kit for SharePoint (AKS) – Today – 30
Microsoft and HiSoftware have launched the Accessibility Kit for SharePoint or AKS. AKS is intended tosignificantly reduce the time, knowledge, and effort required to implement a SharePoint-based web sitethat conforms to the World Wide Web Consortium’s (W3C) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0Priority 1 and 2 checkpoints.
Microsoft and HiSoftware have established and will jointly nurture a community of SharePoint site designersand developers focused on accessibility advancement and standards compliance. The AKS Community siteallows Microsoft Partners, customers and stakeholders to dialogue with each other and Microsoft aboutAccessibility best practices, lessons learned challenges and successes.
AKS is available at no cost via Microsoft Public License (Ms-PL) which was recently approved by the OpenSource Initiative as an open source license. Additionally the kit utilizes an open and well documented inter-face enabling the extension of SharePoint applications to remain accessible - above and beyond whatMicrosoft provides out of the box. Finally, AKS contains tutorials and education-empowering others to“build accessible”.
http://aks.hisoftware.com
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SeniorPC project – Today – 31
Microsoft’s SeniorPC project is an effort to increase seniors’ use of computer technology by working withother companies, non-profits and governments that have an interest in ensuring access to ICT.
Microsoft has designed two SeniorPC offerings for individuals who have little to no computer experience.Both offerings allow users to easily e-mail, Web browse and word process. Both were designed in collabo-ration with HP. Both the HP laptop and desktop versions of the SeniorPC include a printer. The desktop ver-sion includes a 17” flat screen monitor.
The SeniorPC offerings also include prescription management software (Windows OnTimeRX) and cogni-tive exercises (Classic Kakuro and Wordigo). The offerings are available in either a Standard or Autopilotversions—the latter providing “shell” interfaces for simplified e-mail, Web browser and word processingapplications (QualiLife’s EasyAccess suite). The two versions are available for sale via Microsoft’s WindowsMarketplace.
www.windowsmarketplace.com/seniorpc
Microsoft Health Solutions Group – Future – 32
The Health Solutions Group has a simple vision statement: To improve health around the world. To achievethat vision, we are developing innovative solutions on both the enterprise and consumer sides of thehealthcare equation – because healthcare is too complicated to be solved with a single approach. We areproud to be engaged in the creation of a business that can do well by doing good.
SENIOR PC
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Microsoft Industry Innovations Group – Tomorrow – 01
Microsoft’s productivity envisioning efforts are focused on fostering the ongoing culture of innovation atMicrosoft by unifying, extending and demonstrating Microsoft’s long-term vision.
This dedicated group highlights the potential behind Microsoft R&D, developing strategies and scenariosfor how leading edge technologies might be used in real world settings – such as finance, retail, manufac-turing and health care – over the next 5-10 years. In addition, the team creates a conduit to feed custo-mer insights and potential partnerships back into the company, helping to broaden opportunities for futureinnovation.
The envisioning group’s main strategies are to study the intersection of customer challenges and techno-logy trends, develop forward-looking scenarios, articulate a vision that connects with worldwide audiencesand engage a community of internal & external thought-leaders.
Health future vision:
Imagine a future where you can monitor your own health with smart, connected devices; sharing data withmembers of your health team is seamless; and doctors are empowered with a view of health records acrossmultiple sources – all leading to simpler, safer, more personalized care. As part of the Health Future Visioninitiative at Microsoft, we’ll offer you a glimpse at how we envision Microsoft technology-driven solutionswill empower our customers and partners to realize scenarios such as these over the next five to sevenyears.
Ian Sands, Director of Envisioning, Microsoft [email protected]
Harald Becker, Manager – Envisioning, Microsoft [email protected]
Envision
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Microsoft Language Development Center – Future – 24
Centro Microsoft para o Desenvolvimento da Linguagem, Portugal Porto Salvo
The Microsoft Language Development Center (MLDC) is the first Microsoft Development Center outside ofRedmond dedicated to key Speech and Natural Language development, and is a clear demonstration ofMicrosoft efforts of stimulating a strong software industry in EMEA.
The MLDC was founded in 2005. MLDC unique characteristics, is its long-term plan to bring key languagecomponent product development to the EMEA region.
The long term mission of MLDC is to perform local language development in the EMEA region, startingwith the Portuguese for a range of Microsoft products and platforms.
During the Innovation Day 2007, we will be presenting our “Speech International Project”, “MicrosoftExchange Server 2007 – Unified Communications” with Outlook Voice Access in Portuguese, the newlylaunched ”Citizenship campaign” by Microsoft in Portugal, the “Virtual Cave-Hollowspace” project and“Microsoft Voice Command” in Portuguese.”
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Microsoft Protocol Programs Europe – Today – 36
Microsoft’s Protocol Programs give you access to the technology you need to create innovative, interope-rable products. The Microsoft Protocol Programs provide you with quality guidance on how to connectyour systems regardless of platform.
InnovationMicrosoft Protocol Programs allow you to develop solutions for interoperability among servers and clients,based on dozens of real-business scenarios.
QualityMicrosoft not only grants licensees applicable intellectual property rights, but also provides quality techni-cal documentation and world-class support and services.
CommunityMicrosoft builds communities with newsletters, complimentary personalized customer service, and eventslike Plugfests and Interop Labs.
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Big Board – Future – 10
A technology for cost free interaction in the developing world
For most of the developing world, mobile phones are the primary computer and communications device.Mobile phones are their only means of connecting to and engaging with the digital information. Cost toois a constraint for the bulk of these users, especially in developing countries.Big board is the name we have given to a technology that allows people to engage in the digital world for freewith a standard phone, just as long as that phone has a camera and Bluetooth. Nearly all phones now do.
With Big Board, users can download and post digital information. They can receive images, videos, textfiles, V-cards, HTML links and other digital material simply by using their camera phone to take a pictureof a visual icon on a Big Board, and then sending that image, via Bluetooth, to the Big Board. Using advan-ced image recognition software, Big Board then identifies which image has been sent and posts back tothe sender, automatically, all the digital files or ‘media pack’ that the user has selected. Thereafter, the sameuser can also post their own digital content which others can then download. The application that doesthis on the Big Board is called snap, send and grab.
Big Board was invented at Microsoft Research, Cambridge and is now been developed for trial by theUniversity of Cape Town, South Africa.
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Boku: Lightweight Programming for Kids – Future – 43
A technology for cost free interaction in the developing world
Boku uses a novel, high-level programming paradigm within a 3-D gaming world on the Xbox 360 to intro-duce children to creative use of the computer. Boku’s programming model is extremely simple—it does notuse a textual language or wiring diagrams. Kids use simple “behavior cards” to enable a small virtual robotto navigate its world and achieve specific tasks. The goal is to provide a gentle introduction to some of thefoundational elements of creative programming to children who may not yet be ready for the complexityof classical computer languages. The user is exposed to behavior arbitration, generality, representation ofan abstract state, real-time experimentation and feedback, simulation, sensors, physics, and message pas-sing. The programming environment is integrated in an attractive gaming world and controlled entirely viaan Xbox 360 game controller.
Digital Libraries: Windows Vista “Turning the Pages 2.0” – Today – 15
The British Library has had great success with its pioneering “Turning the Pages” application, the world’smost compelling digital book reading experience. The British Library together with the ISV Armadillo Systems, has developed an application based on theWindows Vista platform and Microsoft SQL Server technology (replacing the previous Adobe technology)to digitize and display historical books and make them available to the public to view via a rich 3D expe-rience (online or through kiosks at the library). The ‘Turning the Pages 2.0’ toolkit uses Windows Vista technology, including Windows PresentationFoundation, and enables the British Library to offer many more books in its digital library, at higher resolution,with significantly lower development costs, while providing an even more immersive experience to the reader
Microsoft has assisted the library in developing their core backend Digital Library Platform and the BritishLibrary has entered into a strategic partnership with Microsoft to digitize 25 million pages from 100,000out-of-copyright books in 2006.Turning the Pages brings these documents to life in full 3D and opens up access to these national treasu-res for the world to view online. The new application also allows users to add comments on the pages andallows other people to view these comments – thereby encouraging debate and collaboration
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HDView: IE Plug-in for Viewing Very Large Image – Future – 17
New imaging modalities range from photo collections arranged in 3-D to super-high-resolution (gigapixel)images to 360-degree panoramic video. This is revolutionizing the way that people view and interact withtheir photos. We will demonstrate a new viewer that can be embedded in any application or Web page. Itmerges traditional slide shows, super-high-resolution panoramas, high-dynamic-range imagery, and 360-degree animations to create an incredibly rich photo-viewing and -browsing experience. During TechFest,we will demonstrate these features. A version with a subset of these features will be made available bothinternally and externally. We also will demonstrate a prototype authoring tool that generates HDViewcontent.
http://research.microsoft.com/ivm/HDView/HDabout.htm
‘HomeBook’ – Future – 08
'HomeBook’ is a device that lets members of families have a 'presence' even when they are away, allowingfunctional, informal and playful communication. It is placed in the centre of a home, perhaps in the kitchenor hallway, so that everyone can see it. It is linked to the internet and cellular network so that it can receivemessages over any channel. Its screen is divided into a number of areas, with each area 'owned' by a dif-ferent member of the family. Each member can 'post' whatever messages they want to their area, whetherthat be via email, SMS or MMS.
‘HomeBook’ also allows people at home to communicate back to members of the family through touch ofthe screen and selection of predetermined options. If the remote family member has a GlancePhone,‘HomeBook’ also allows 'glances' of that remote user. ‘HomeBook’ differs from other family messagingdevices by focusing on presence, on informality, and in allowing the concurrent display of content formmultiple channels.
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Kitchen Postcard – Future – 09
With the Digital Postcard project we are exploring the possibility of sending rich, image and text-basedmessages from mobile phones and through e-mail to situated displays in the home. We imagine that thisparticular instantiation of a Postcard device would be situated in the kitchen, and allow friends and familyto "push" images and text into that space from outside the home. We’re interested in how family memberstreat that content, particularly with regard to the devices location. This device presents a number of visua-lizations of messaging content, from metaphorical to abstract, that allow us to test out a variety of ideaswith families near our lab in Cambridge.
Learning To Race by Model-Based Reinforcement Learning with Adaptive AbstractionFuture – 41
This demo illustrates the use of reinforcement learning for training a simulated car in a state-of-the-artcomputer game to race around the track. The demo shows a very advanced application of reinforcementlearning with adaptive state abstraction to a real-world domain with a large, continuous state space, a mul-titude of actions and a difficult learning task.In addition, the integration of the learning algorithm into the 30 frames per second simulation cycle of thegame is a remarkable step forward. The reinforcement learning algorithm used is called AMPS (AdaptiveModelling and Planning System).
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PLANETS – Future – 16
This project involves a consortium of 16 European libraries, national archives, universities, and industrypartners. They are working on technologies and strategies for long term preservation of digital content.This is of paramount importance for enabling preservation of national heritage. Within the project,Microsoft Research is investigating the use of Open Office XML format for the preservation of Officedocuments. Such an effort is critical for the preservation of a wide range of government, legal, and busi-ness archives.
Microsoft has a long standing collaboration with the British Library on digitizing large portion of library’sholdings and providing access to rapidly evolving web archive. This undertaking challenges the currentstate-of-the-art in information management and search. Lead by Geoff Hughes, our partnership with theBritish Library has taken a new dimension and instigated discussions across the Company on the MS Searchstrategy, involving researchers, product groups, and top management. Microsoft MSN division has contri-buted $5 million toward the digitization of 100,000 books from the Library holdings.
Research Desktop is an example of a specialized functional layer (‘skin’) that can be built for specific pro-fessionals to increase creativity and improve user’s productivity.
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Research Desktop – Future – 18
Research Desktop augments the standard desktop environment with concepts and designs that enablenew ways of working and managing resources. It provides support in four key areas: Activities, Tools,Library and Notes.Research Desktop Activities allows users to label related documents, images, e-mails, and other items use-ful for performing a given task. Using the assigned labels, they can easily activate a particular task or switchbetween multiple tasks.
Research Desktop provides dedicated information spaces: personal Library to collect books, manuscripts,relevant articles and media, and Notes to enable simple storage and access to content snippets, URLs, andother bits of information that can easily be misplaced or can be difficult to find.
Research Desktop is powered by a selection of tools and services that can be used in various contexts.Users can easily analyze individual books or collections of publications, create a co-author network, anddiscover trends in data. It revolutionizes the way we work by providing easy access to functionalities thatare typically hidden within applications or not commonly found in the desktop environment.Research Desktop is an example of a specialized functional layer (‘skin’) that can be built forspecific professionals to increase creativity and improve user’s productivity.
Robust Location Search from Text Queries – Future – 11
Robust, global, address geocoding is challenging because there is no single address format that applies toall geographies, and in any case, users may not restrict themselves to well-formed addresses. Particularlyin online mapping systems, users frequently enter queries with missing or conflicting information, misspel-lings, address transpositions, and other such variations. We present a novel system which handles thesedifficulties by using a combination of textual similarity and spatial coherence to guide a depth-first searchover the large space of possible interpretations of a text query. Experimental results demonstrate that oursystem is capable of supporting regions with widely differing address formats, without region-specific cus-tomization or training. Furthermore, we show that our system significantly outperforms commercial sys-tems for unstructured location queries and queries containing errors. We also present progress on our cur-rent efforts to build a distributed version of the system that we believe can scale to the whole Earth.
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Shake2Talk – Future – 07
The Shake2Talk system allows users to construct audio-tactile messages through simple gesture interac-tions with a mobile phone, and to send these messages to other people, via SMS protocol. When aShake2Talk message arrives on a phone, it plays immediately. Such messages could be used to communi-cate a range of meanings, from the practical (e.g. "home safely", represented by the sound and sensationof a key turning in a lock) to the emotional (e.g. "thinking of you" represented by a heartbeat) to the see-mingly abstract (e.g. the sound of water sloshing). The aim of this research is to explore how such a non-visual, multimodal communication system might be used for interpersonal communication, alongside cur-rent messaging genres.
ThinSight – Future – 12
A multi-touch sensing display that supports tangible interaction
ThinSight is an optical touch sensor, fully integrated with an LCD, capable of detecting multiple fingers pla-ced on or near the display surface. Fingertips and hands are clearly identifiable through the display andphysical objects can also be detected. This allows direct manipulation via zero force multi-touch interac-tion whilst simultaneously supporting tangible interaction. A major advantage of ThinSight over existingcamera and projector based optical systems is its compact, thin form-factor making it easier to deploy.
We are developing the hardware that underlies ThinSight and at the same time exploring the interactiontechniques and application scenarios ThinSight enables.
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Video Collage – Future – 03
Video Collage is a type of compact representation of video. It uses one automatically synthesized imageto summarize the content of a video. Given a video, Video Collage selects the most representative framesfrom the video, extract salient regions of interest (ROI) from these frames and seamlessly arrange ROIs ona given canvas. Video Collage provides a novel user interface that enables users to browse video contentin a more compact and visually appealing way in contrast to many existing video browsers. Video Collagecan be easily integrated into existing video management systems, video sharing sites and video searchengines to support attractive video browsing and sharing experience.
Microsoft Silverlight – Today – 05
Visit the Silverlight booth to be amazed.
View a selection of media, RIA and business focused demos. Talk to the creators of many of the Silverlight demos to discover how the demos were designed and deve-loped. Silverlight is a splendid technology that brings you a smooth and solid connection with the consu-mer and helps the end-user benefit of a swift delivery of web content. Silverlight helps your content to beexperienced in the most optimal way possible nowadays.
Join us to light up the web with Silverlight.
http://silverlight.net/
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Microsoft Strategic Prototyping – Today – 39
Sharing Personal Info safely
An experience around hiring a babysitter. We show safe ways of sharing personal information in an onlineform, using smart software and services that protect our privacy through an amount of reciprocation.
Keeping our Children on Track
Show a prototype smart display designed for a child with content managed by a parent. We have a fewmini demo scenarios that touch on: safe communications, Homework, and game for which they need toearn credits in order to play.
Browsing based on preferences and more
Through an online entertainment guide, we show how the content may get populated by not only yourpreferences, but your events past, present and future, tracking your history, and organizations you maysubscribe to. The content includes: recommendations from the school based on the current curriculum,trips we have taken and are going to take, shows based on actors we’ve watched a lot of.
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Nortel – Today – 35
Microsoft and Nortel have set up the Innovative Communications Alliance, which represents both a sharedvision in the future of Unified Communications and a deep commitment to build on our existing offeringsand relationship, to bring the Unified Communications vision to market and help our customers realizesignificant business benefits as a result. The joint investment by both parties supports this commitment tobring the UC vision to customers. By aligning the efforts of two industry leaders—Microsoft in the softwarebusiness and Nortel with its deep voice and networking heritage—we are putting a stake in the ground totransform and accelerate the delivery of this new software-centric vision for communications.
The opportunity for our customers is fantastic and our combined technology, service and support offe-rings will enable enterprise customers to deploy and gain the real benefits of our shared UnifiedCommunications vision. Although the approach is revolutionary in terms of impact, we believe the indus-try requires an evolutionary approach to ensure these benefits are accessible to the widest range of orga-nizations, regardless of their current state of communications investment.
On the ICA booth you will experience the native integration of the Office Communicator 2007 and theNortel CS 1000 solution, the LG – Nortel Tanjay phone, the USB phone Calatina as well as the rich appli-cations such as Exchange Unified Messaging 2007 and the Nortel Multimedia Conferencing.
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PLAY ALL – Today – 37
Convinced that the development industry’s next revolution is collaboration and mutual assistance betweenstudios, five French developers decided to open up and share technology, know-how and make their teamsof programmers collaborate to secure the development of their own cross-platform tool-chain standard.
The project, called PLAY ALL, is initiated by Darkworks, Kylotonn, Load Inc., White Birds Productions,Wizarbox and supported by major French engineering schools in Computer Science. These five compa-nies specifically set up together a company for Game Technology and a Technology Center to drive themiddleware project, gathering a team of more than 40 engineers during 2 years.
With a 13M€ budget PLAY ALL is backed up by the Parisian competitiveness cluster Cap Digital and sup-ported by a 6.5M€ combined funding from the region and the French Ministry of Industry.
To learn more please send an email to [email protected] benefits from the support of Microsoft IDEES program, an initiative dedicated topromote and support the growth of high potential software companies in France
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Remedy Entertainment Ltd. – Today – 13
Remedy Entertainment Ltd., a privately held developer of action computer games, game franchises andleading edge 3D game technology is based in Espoo, Finland. With over seven million copies sold, theyare well known for their work as the developers of the "Max Payne" series. Remedy is currently developing"Alan Wake", a psychological action thriller for Xbox 360 and Windows Vista to be published by MicrosoftGame Studios.
www.remedygames.com
ROBOSOFT – Tomorrow – 06
ROBOSOFT is a pioneer in advanced service robotic solutions addressing high value markets such as auto-matic transportation, cleaning, security, health and research. ROBOSOFT has built over years a unique androbust robotic core technology and applicative modules offering unmatched functionality/price ratio andmaking possible to seamlessly build reliable, industrial-grade robots. In 2007, ROBOSOFT stepped into per-sonal robotics with robuLAB10 to take up the challenge of the aging society. robuLAB 10 is a prototype ofa home-centric robot, to assist people at home and able to implement services like social interaction,remote tele-medecine, cognitive prosthesis, safeguarding or duties like cleaning.
www.robosoft.com
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SANAKO Corporation – Today – 24
SANAKO, formerly Tandberg Educational, is a learning technology company developing language teachingsolutions, teaching and classroom management software, virtual learning and professional developmentsolutions, as well as supplying customer services. Sanako is the world leader in live language learningtechnology. Today’s solutions include modern software, wireless and mobile systems that act as a catalystfor improving teaching outcomes by motivating learning.
The sales network reaches customers all over the world and has provided Tandberg Educational Quality tosatisfied users in over 100 countries. Sanako serves customers through a network of resellers in 70 coun-tries. Based in Finland, the company has sales offices in China, France, UAE, UK and US. SANAKO is aMicrosoft® Certified Partner and a Blackboard Building Blocks® community member.
www.sanako.com
SIVECO – Today – 25
SIVECO Romania is one of the most important suppliers of complex software solutions of EAS, eLearning,eHealth, eBusiness and eGovernment, from Central and Eastern Europe. Founded in 1992, the companyhas developed a wide range of software products and specializes in implementing these in large, nation-wide projects.
AeL, the eLearning platform developed by SIVECO Romania, received numerous international awards. Theplatform is implemented in more than 4800 schools in countries from Europe, Middle East, Africa and CIS.Our extensive eContent library of 1700 hours of rich interactive lessons received the World Summit Awardwith the title of Best eContent in the World, at the World Summit for the Information Society, Tunis, 2005.
www.siveco.ro
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Skinkers – Tomorrow – 42
Livestation delivers a range of live radio and television channels to the computer via the Internet. By sim-ply downloading the free Livestation player users can watch television wherever they are, whenever theywant. Livestation delivers remarkable quality audio and video, enabling the user to watch television on adesktop or a laptop, at home, at work, on the move, or in a hotel room, provided the user has a broad-band Internet connection or wireless access.
Unlike video on demand (VOD) or download services, Livestation delivers live broadcast channels, so userscan watch breaking news or live sports events as they happen. Livestation is designed to be able to servemillions of users without many of the limitations associated with traditional online streaming services.Livestation offers an integrated player that allows users to choose from a number of channels and conti-nue listening and viewing while using other applications, delivering a truly interactive live experience.
Microsoft invested four years of extensive research into optimising live video streaming over peer-to-peernetworks and developed an exceptional technology foundation which was subsequently acquired bySkinkers in a pioneering technology for equity deal completed in June 2006. Building on this unique foun-dation, Skinkers has developed Livestation and has further extended its partnership with Microsoft throughthe use of Silverlight technology. Livestation is currently in technical trial.
www.livestation.com
SMART Technologies ULC. – Today – 27b
SMART Technologies Inc. is the industry pioneer and global market leader in easy-to-use interactive whi-teboards and group collaboration tools. The award-winning SMART Board interactive whiteboard is themost widely installed product of its kind in the world. It enhances teacherproductivity and improves stu-dent learning outcomes, and is used in more than 250,000 classrooms worldwide. SMART products alsoinclude interactive pen displays, interactive digital signage, wireless slates and software.
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Using SMART products, groups can access and share the information they need to meet, teach, train andpresent. SMART’s education customers include Oxford University (UK), United World College (Singapore)and Stephen-Hawking-Schule Neckargemuend (Germany).
SMART Technologies will be presenting part of its product range, including the SMART Board InteractiveWhiteboard, the Senteo student response system, the Sympodium interactive Pen Display, SynchronEyescomputer lab software and other devices for collaboration in classrooms and boardrooms. The demons-trations will include practical examples of how to use this technology efficiently in various teaching and cor-porate environments.
VANERUM – Today – 27a
With over 35 years of experience, VANERUM has become one of Europe’s leading suppliers of integratedenvironments for learning and visual communication. VANERUM changes the way people study, work, andcommunicate visually throughout the world, providing products and solutions for education, corporate andcommercial markets.
Moving into the third millennium, VANERUM has developed into a company with a reputation for quality,performance and outstanding service. VANERUM consistently pursues new paths in design, introduces newand innovative materials and truly advanced concepts, integrating technology in traditional environments.VANERUM counts 190 employees, sales offices in Belgium, The Netherlands and Germany and partners allover Europe, the USA and Asia. VANERUM will show its vision on the integrated classroom of the future,which exists already today. This vision consists of ‘ICT ready’ ergonomically correct furniture which facilita-tes both individual and group work and frontal teaching methods.The integration factor consists of ICT materials, audiovisual equipment and various interactivetools including SMART Board Interactive whiteboards and Senteo voting systems.
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Virtual Events – Today – 14
Virtual Events is a dynamic audiovisual production company, specialized in special projection and presen-tation techniques and (3D) design. We deliver concepts in which content is tailored to the event. By wor-king together with the customer on the realization of the project we provide them with a visual experiencethat gives the event an additional dimension.
At the Microsoft Innovation Day we feature two of our special products:The 3D multi-view display from Philips offers the possibility to create an impressive 3D experience. Withthis 3D technology you can see sharp 3D images without having to wear special 3D glasses. The 3D Displaycreates the perception that images actually come out of the screen and also creates additional depth.Our interactive floor projections are playgrounds with vivid components that you can touch or play with:the design reacts to every movement no matter where it is displayed.
www.virtualevents.com
Voices for Innovation – Today – 33
Voices for Innovation is a global network of technology professionals and stakeholders working togetherto support public policies that promote innovation, business success and economic growth. Our network,supported by Microsoft, ranges from software developers, resellers, suppliers, consumers, to academicsand others, and includes diverse organisations of all sizes. We are unified by our interest in seeking toengage in the debate surrounding crucial areas of importance to Europe’s business future and actively edu-cate community leaders, policymakers, the media and other audiences about the economic and socialimpacts of technology, the value of intellectual property, the importance of research and development, thecosts of excessive regulation and more.Make your voice heard by joining us today.
www.voicesforinnovation.org
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Winvision – Today – 26
Winvision was founded in 2002, from the start focused on helping educational institutions implementtechnologies. Initially a System Integrator, we have evolved into a solution partner offering project services,managed services and standard software products to its customers.
Using input from our customers, many of which are educational institutions and qualification authorities,we have built applications that support a new way of learning. All applications are built on top of theMicrosoft stack of software for Collaboration, Content Management, Security, Workflow and ManagementInformation.
With Gold Certifications in 10 Microsoft Solution Categories, Winvision has a highly skilled and certifiedworkforce.
The Winvision Digital Portfolio on Sharepoint offers competence-based, student-centric support for today’slearning process, significantly improving inclusion and learning outcomes by engaging learners with thenewest technology and pedagogical concepts.
By combining our services and products with the Microsoft stack, we offer our educational customers com-plete solutions on the newest Microsoft technologies.
www.winvision.eu
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YDreams – Today – 21
YDreams is a Portuguese-based technology company that develops solutions and products based on inno-vative interfaces, cutting-edge design and applied creativity.
The company is geared towards the paradigm of Reality Computing, which seeks to integrate the digitaluniverse into the real world by creating systems that envelop the user’s senses and establish new approa-ches for interacting with knowledge and information without the conventional use of wires and keyboards.
Over the past seven years YDreams has worked with global corporations such as Adidas, Vodafone andNokia, and has developed a series of patent-pending solutions for markets such as advertising, edutain-ment and entertainment in countries all over the world. The company was founded in 2000 and operatesin the global market from offices in Lisbon, Barcelona, London and Austin, Texas
Contact persons:Fernando NabaisOlivia [email protected]
www.ydreams.com
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