Build 2016: Microsoft presents Cortana Bots, Cognitive Services APIs and more

That’s a wrap from the Build 2016 Keynote

Saquib Shaikh demoed a Glass like device which uses similar gestures and takes pictures, which then recognise the scene and give contextual information to the wearer in the form of audio

Visually impaired developer Saquib Shaikh AV just showed a glass like device to help blind people get an idea of their surroundings.

CRIS bot lets you translate audio into text in a more contextually enhanced way

CaptionBot lets you come up with Captions by just selecting the images based on the deep learning

Microsoft Cognitive Services has Speech APIs, Search APIs, Knowledge APIs and 22 more APIs for devs.

If the bot does not understand a request, then the conversation will be forwarded to a Human contact

Domino’s Pizza bot being demoed making use of natural language processing.

Micosoft Bot Framework announced. This will let businesses to create bots to communicate with other bots.

Cortana Intelligence Suite announced

“Empowering Developers” says Nadella. We want every developer to build a bot, to build intelligent apps.

Skype for HoloLens also announced.

Skype Bot to work across Windows 10, iOS and Android

Devs to get access to Skype Bot SDK

Rincon is demoing Cortana bot communicating with bots from businesses which understands context based on your queries. This is interesting stuff which requires you to enter into the conversation lesser number of times

This will allow businesses to use the power of Cortana and Skype says Rincon

You can have one on one conversation with Cortana within Skype – basically acting like your assistant.

The new feature of Skype will come integrated with bots: Video messages can come with transcribed text. There is sticker support.

Lilian Rincon from Skype on stage to talk about Skype’s new features

Conversational Canvases: Nadella talking about using bots within Skype to provide services to you

Cortana adds in Pro-active actions to take a call to action on your search results

Cortana works seamlessly across Windows and Android devices as well.

Cortana also works with Android updates that show up on your desktop.

Cortana is now integrated in Outlook Calendar. Conversational intelligence lets Cortana integrate updates inside your mail box as well

Ash now asking Cortana to tell him a science joke – and then goes on to explain that joke!

We want to make voice conversation with Cortana as easy as a voice conversation with a human being says Ash

Markus Ash form the Cortana team on stage to give a preview of the future plans of Cortana

We want to ensure that the expertise of Cortana is not bound says Nadella.

Cortana is going to be available across all your devices – iOS or Android – as well says Nadella.

Nadella wants human language to be the new UI Layer and Bots are like the new apps

Nadella touches upon Skype’s on-the-fly speech translation technique

Nadella want to build the Conversation as a Platform on using natural human language patterns to help with computing.

Microsoft takes down AI chatbot ‘Tay’ after Twitter teaches it racism – Tech2http://tech.firstpost.com

Nadella agrees that Tay social bot wasn’t really a smart product and wasnt well executed.

Nadella: You have to have inbuilt security and compliance. All technology we build has to be inclusive so that more people use it and find it useful

Nadella: We want to build intelligence that augments human abilities and intelligence – Man with machine as opposed to Man vs Machine.

Conversation as a Platform – Take the power of the Human language and apply is more pervasively across computing devices. We want to teach computers to have conversational understanding. Teach them about the broader context about your preferences and your knowledge.

“We are excited about the new frontiers that Windows 10 presents to you developers” says Nadella.

Satya Nadella back on stage summarising the day’s announcements

HoloLens will start shipping today

NASA scientists explaining the use of HoloLens to study the red planet. Destination Mars exhibit gives holographic captures of Astronauts to let you tour the surface of Mars.

Dr Davis is demoing undertanding anatomy using the HoloLens. Studying anatomy, nervous system, anatomy of the brain. Remote teaching by another professor from another location. This is quite futuristic as you can see the holographic output

Dr Pamela Davis of Case Western Reserve to talk about the use of HoloLens in medical education.

Microsoft HoloLens Galaxy Lens source code to be released on GitHub.

HoloLens to become a reality with Windows 10 today. Kipman and Kudo announce Microsoft HoloLens shipment to developers and partners starting today

Alex Kipman on stage to demo HoloLens and its new features

Background Music to also come with the Anniversary Update. More new features for the Xbox One to be announced at E3 in June.

Cortana to come on Xbox One

There will be a Unified store across devices as well.

It is easy to switch between dev mode and the gaming mode on Xbox One. The whole idea of Dev mode is to let every developer reach devs to reach the TV audience via the Xbox One.

Speicher just demoed the deployment of her photo app into Xbox One, which is controlled using the Xbox controller.

Ashley Speicher on stage demoeing the dev mode features on a retail Xbox One.

Xbox Dev Mode lets devs convert a retail Xbox into a developer unit

Live Tile Support, Notification support, etc are some of the features that can be seen on these converted games.

Spencer demoing ‘Age of Empires II HD’ running as a Modern Desktop app using App converter.

We are working to ensure that Windows 10 has a great game experience with new games. YOu will get the ability to disable VSync. We will include support for overlays and modding says Spencer

‘Our plan is to deliver games that will run better, provide a robust instal/uninstall features, better distribution across any Store or deployment mechanism’ says Spencer

Phil Spencer on stage to talk about importance of the UWP in terms of game development. ‘Windows will continue to remain an open ecosystem’

Game devs are talking about the importance of the Universal Windows Platform and how its helping extract more immersive experiences

Myerson talking about Gaming across devices including HoloLens. “In the last few years HoloLens has gone for a dream to a prototype to a time when real users are doing cool stuff with it” says Myerson

Myerson back on stage. He is talking about enabling shells natively in Windows.

Desktop App converter lets you convert a regular desktop app and converts it to a Modern desktop app. Modern Desktop apps have access to all universal APIs running on Windows 10.

Build 2016: Microsoft is working on integrating Ubuntu into Windows; developers rejoice – Tech2http://tech.firstpost.com

Bash shell is coming to Windows. Native Ubuntu and Linux binaries working natively on Windows

Visual Studio Update 2 and Anniversary SDK Preview to be released today.

Windows Ink feature addition involves just a couple of line of codes, which brings up the onscreen ruler.

Gallo showing a demo of the native apps using graphics horsepower. Windows Ink is certainly being talk about a lot – another demo, this one involving coding.

‘Windows is Home for Developers’ says Microsoft

Kevin Gallo on stage to talk about the Windows 10 ecosystem.

An AV showing Boeing engineers using Windows 10 and the UWP applications.

New UWP app for Facebook, Instagram and Messenger coming soon to Windows Store says Myerson

UWP is an open platform says Myerson. Windows Store visits have got over 5 billion hits. UWP has seen over 60% growth over last few months.

Myerson back on stage and talking about the Universal Windows Platform.

Ink works with MS Word with new features as well. It also integrates well with Adobe tools as well

SketchPad is an illustrator which comes with an onscreen ruler which helps you make straight lines among other things. The Ink Workspace is available over your lock screen as well.

“Call mom tomorrow” sticky note, immediately picks up Tomorrow and sets a reminder for you. That’a a good value add

Bryan Roper is running through the features and stats at a really speedy rate, asking for constant feedback from the crowd

Putting Ink up front says Roper. Windows Ink is the new feature which offers better ink flow. Pressing the Pen button brings up the Ink workspace instead of opening up One Note.

Bryan Roper on stage to talk about Anniversary Update for Windows 10

Myerson just said that he welcomes users who have been ‘using Mac’ on stage.

As compared to Windows 7 and Windows 8, Windows 10 has seen a much greater adoption says Myerson.

“Windows 10 is being actively used by 270 million people. There are over 500 new devices launched with Windows 10 OS onboard.” says Myerson

Build 2016: Ten features we’d love to see in Windows 10 – Tech2http://tech.firstpost.com

Terry Myerson on stage now to talk about the Windows 10 updates

“We are in the very early days of a new emerging platform. We call it ‘Conversations as a Platform’. It is about taking the power of the human language and applying it pervasively to all our computing” says Nadella

Nadella hinting at opening up Gaming APIs for desktop and console game developers

“Windows 10 is off to an amazing start. Fastest growing OS among consumers and enterprise. New categories of devices HoloLens and IoT are getting created with Windows 10 atop it” Nadella

“Building on Azure lets you reach over 5 million active business opportunities. We are opening up Office 365 like never before” says Nadella. He is giving a brief introduction to the presentations that will follow in the Build 2016 conference over these two days

Nadella reiterating his Mobile-First, Cloud-First spiel

Mobile first is about the mobility of human experience of all the devices says Nadella. “Cloud isnt a single destination but a new form of computing”

Nadella talking the importance of developers to take innovations in technology forward.

“I believe technology can drive economic growth over the world. I believe technology can empower us in our daily lives” says Nadella

Nadella talking about the importance of technology in society.

“There is a much more mainstream dialogue about the role of technology in our society. Technology is so mainstream. It is embedded in our daily lives much more than ever before” says Nadella

Satya Nadella on stage: “Developers walk away inspired by what they see and what they learn to build new innovations”

Satya Nadella on stage: “Developers walk away inspired by what they see and what they learn to build new innovations”

The #Build2016 event is about to begin soon

Build 2016: Ten features we’d love to see in Windows 10 – Tech2http://tech.firstpost.com

Here’s what we feel Microsoft would present at BUILD 2016

Build 2016: What Microsoft could possibly present this year? – Tech2http://tech.firstpost.com

Microsoft’s annual developer conference BUILD 2016 is about to begin shortly. Here is the link for the live webcast for those who want to follow the event as it happens: http://news.microsoft.com/build2016/#sm.00001jch55ype3ehmskrmc12h1lwr