AT&T Labs Research — Leading Invention, Driving Innovation

Improving on force-directed graph drawing

Using data from the Tree of Life project, Yifan Hu visualized genetic linkages among 93891 species using a high-performance graph layout method designed to overcome the peripheral warping sometimes seen with force-directed algorithms, especially when used on large data sets.

The result, shown here, is an aesthetic tree layout that efficiently utilizes white space to clarify the underlying phylogenetics structure.

App turns your smart phone into a translation device

The free AT&T Translator app turns a smart phone into a speech translation device. Talk into your iPhone (or iPad or iPod) or Android smart phone, and the app translates and then speaks your words in one of seven languages, just like in the ad.

The speech translation technology was created at AT&T Research and incorporates AT&T WATSON^SM and AT&T Natural Voices^®.

AT&T Translator is available from iTunes and from Google Play.

Postscript to the Netflix Prize contest

Those who followed the Netflix Prize might wonder what happened with the $1M-winning solution. A blog post by Netflix reveals the $1M solution was never used. Does this mean the contest was for naught?

No. As Chris Volinsky explains in a news article, Netflix is still using the main methods that he, Bob Bell, and Yehuda Koren (now at Yahoo!) developed to win the first-year $50,000 progress prize. All three later became part of the winning coalition in the third and final year.

AT&T researchers give students a chance to invent

A car dashboard that integrates social media, a holographic teacher for remote learning, a refrigerator that offers recipes based on its contents . . . all are ideas brainstormed by high-school students visiting AT&T Labs - Research, where they were encouraged to become “inventibles,” or superhuman inventors using technology to make the world a better place. The event, in collaboration with YSAP, is part of AT&T's continuing effort to promote STEM education.

Facet facilitates large-scale, interactive visualizations

Creating large-scale visualizations can be difficult, requiring either complex coding or manipulating standalone graphics primitives to fit together. Facet is an open-source, WebGL-based visualization infrastructure that provides an easier way: primitives designed to assemble easily together along with easy-to-use software to aid assembly.

Still early in the design stage, Facet is now available for downloading.

AT&T unveils tool to help apps run faster, smarter

A free diagnostic tool is now available to help developers create energy-efficient apps that conserve battery power and respond faster.

The AT&T Application Resource Optimizer (ARO), which runs alongside device apps, analyzes energy usage and pinpoints inefficiencies in how apps connect and transfer data (a previous article details the complex device-network interactions). Go here to access ARO and learn more.