Windows 10: Eye Contact now generally available on Surface Pro X

Brink · Aug 20, 2020

Powered by Artificial Intelligence and the onboard Neural Network accelerator, Eye Contact helps to adjust your gaze on video calls and recordings, so you appear to be looking directly in the camera.

In todayâs environment, having technology that helps foster human connection is more important than ever before. Today, weâre excited to share that Eye Contact is generally available for customers around the world using Surface Pro X. You can access Eye Contact by opening the Surface app on your Pro X. It will work on video calling applications like Microsoft Teams, Skype, and others.

To learn more about the technology behind this feature, we caught up with Stevie Bathiche, Microsoft Technical Fellow. He along with a team of engineers and researchers were behind this unique technology.

What is the inspiration behind Eye Contact?

Nothing is more powerful than making a connection with another person. The human face has 43 muscles and can evoke about 21 expressions. Your face has a language all to itself. Social science has shown that when two people talk to each other more often than not, they are looking at each otherâs faces. Making eye contact facilitates in communicating our micro-emotions and intent behind what we are saying.

When you canât make eye contact with somebody, the mind thinks the other person is not paying attention. The language is stunted. And many devices in the market today donât always help because the camera is not located where the person is looking. Using the dedicated AI silicon in the Microsoft SQ1 (more on that below) in Surface Pro X along with the 5.0MP front-facing camera that captures 1080p full HD video, we have made it easier than ever to enable connection that make conversations feel natural.

What impact do you think this feature will have given the significance of video calling today?

Given the growing significance of remote work, learning, and virtual health appointments for example, we realize that the user facing camera is more important than ever, especially to access human connection while travel is limited. Eye Contact adjusts the usersâ gaze across all these scenarios, helping people to make eye contact as if they were right in the same room. The feature can be simply toggled on or off inside the Surface App and once enabled will be automatically applied any time you use the camera, so it works across any video calling service (i.e. Microsoft Teams) or even when recording a video.

Do you have any data or insights on the psychology behind the impact Eye Contact has on people connecting through screens?

There are many studies on the positive influence of eye contact on communication, such as building trust and better mutual understanding. Young influencers have trained themselves to look at the camera when recording. This can be difficult for some people, like children, and makes it hard for them to connect. It can also be especially difficult when you need to look at a corresponding partner, e.g. as a doctor or in legal professions. We hope Eye Contact enables greater inclusiveness across demographics.

Was there anything particularly challenging in the development process? Anything that was difficult to overcome that people would be surprised to hear?

There were two kinds of challenges. One was the purely technical:

Since we wanted any application on Surface Pro X have access to Eye Contact without needing extra work on part of the app developers, we made a conscious choice to integrate it as feature of the camera â in principle, just like how your camera can be adjusted for focus, resolution or brightness, we wanted it capable for Eye Contact. Compared to developing an AI feature in a standalone application, this needed a lot of teaming from across the company.

The second challenge was perceptual. Given eyes send such strong signals of attention and emotion, changes to few pixels can have a huge impact on the perception of the whole image. Our team ensured the AI algorithm maintains peopleâs identity and intention when communicating. We believe image-modifying features should be opt-in for any user, which is why we provide system wide control for the user.

Last year Microsoft introduced the Surface Pro X with custom, Microsoft silicon. What did that innovation enable?

The custom Microsoft SQ1 chipset inside Surface Pro X not only enabled our most thin and light Surface Pro with great battery life and fast charging, it is also the first to integrate an AI chip and enable AI offload. This allows the feature to be more power efficient, which means when youâre using the feature, you shouldnât feel an impact on your device. Without this, the amount of compute needed to enable such features would have a very perceptible hit on your battery lifeâ especially if you are doing multiple hours of calls and recordings. In fact, it makes Surface Pro X the first Windows PC to fully offload AI onto a specialized chip.

Will Eye Contact be available on other Surface devices in the future?

We believe a various number and type of these AI experiences will be infused across the Surface product line. What experiences and when will be a function of the capability of the device (such as its AI acceleration ability), the AI software platform, and customer needs.

What is one technology trend youâre most excited about in the year ahead?

Certainly, the amount of innovation we are seeing in AI at the edge, and how it enables so much compute with so little powerâ¦ following closely with the advances in machine learning itself. With Eye Contact, we are solving a hardware challenge in that we cannot place the camera right behind the display (not yet!) but itâs off to the top bezelâ¦the Eye Contact feature is really pioneering these new types of AI first experiences. It helps drive the right engineering across the entire stack, from application that a user experiences, to the run time infrastructure in Windows, and all the way down the silicon.

This is just the beginning of a very exciting future. Our devices are going to help us connect better with other people and be more productive than ever before, all the while they will maintain their beauty, portability, and battery life.
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Source: Make a more personal connection with Eye Contact, now generally available | Microsoft Devices Blog

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Brink · Aug 20, 2020

New Surface Pro X Drivers and Firmware for Windows 10 - August 14

Improvements and fixes in the update

August 2020 updates

August 14 release

The following updates are available for all Surface Pro X devices running Windows 10 May 2019 Update, version 1903, or greater.

[table][tr][td]Windows Update History Name[/td] [td]Device Manager Name[/td] [td]Version and Update[/td] [/tr] [tr][td]Microsoft Corporation – System Hardware Update[/td] [td]Qualcomm(R) System Manager Device[/td] [td]1.0.1080.0000

Addresses security updates and improves system stability.

[/td] [/tr] [tr][td][/td] [td]Surface UEFI[/td] [td]3.517.140.0

Enables the Eye Contact feature, addresses security updates, and addresses display scale issues.

[/td] [/tr] [tr][td][/td] [td]Qualcomm(R) Hexagon(TM) 690 DSP[/td] [td]1.0.1130.0000

Enables the Eye Contact feature.

[/td] [/tr] [tr][td][/td] [td]Qualcomm(R) Power Management[/td] [td]1.0.0980.0000

Enables the Eye Contact feature.

[/td] [/tr] [tr][td][/td] [td]Qualcomm(R) Spectra(TM) 390 ISP[/td] [td]1.0.1120.0000

Enables the Eye Contact feature.

[/td] [/tr] [tr][td][/td] [td]Qualcomm(R) Spectra(TM) 390 ISP[/td] [td]1.0.1120.0000

Enables the Eye Contact feature.

[/td] [/tr] [tr][td][/td] [td]Qualcomm(R) Spectra(TM) 390 ISP[/td] [td]1.0.1120.2

Enables the Eye Contact feature.

[/td] [/tr] [tr][td][/td] [td]Qualcomm(R) Spectra(TM) 390 ISP[/td] [td]1.0.1120.2

Enables the Eye Contact feature.

[/td] [/tr] [tr][td][/td] [td]Qualcomm(R) Spectra(TM) 390 ISP[/td] [td]1.0.1120.2

Enables the Eye Contact feature.

[/td] [/tr] [tr][td][/td] [td]Qualcomm(R) System Manager Device[/td] [td]1.0.1120.0000

Enables the Eye Contact feature.

[/td] [/tr] [tr][td][/td] [td]Surface Camera AVStream Mini Driver[/td] [td]1.0.1120.2

Enables the Eye Contact feature.

[/td] [/tr] [tr][td][/td] [td]Surface Camera Front Sensor Driver Extension[/td] [td]1.0.1120.2

Enables the Eye Contact feature.

[/td] [/tr] [tr][td][/td] [td]Surface Camera Rear Sensor Driver Extension[/td] [td]1.0.1120.2

Enables the Eye Contact feature.

[/td] [/tr] [tr][td][/td] [td]Surface Pro X CDSP Subsystem Bus Device Extension[/td] [td]1.0.1160.0000

Enables the Eye Contact feature.

[/td] [/tr] [tr][td][/td] [td]Surface Pro X Power Engine Plug-in Device[/td] [td]1.0.1130.0000

Enables the Eye Contact feature.

[/td] [/tr] [tr][td][/td] [td]Qualcomm(R) Spectra(TM) 390 ISP[/td] [td]1.0.1120.0000

Enables the Eye Contact feature and the resolves Camera App crash.

[/td] [/tr] [tr][td][/td] [td]Qualcomm(R) Spectra(TM) 390 ISP[/td] [td]1.0.1120.0000

Enables the Eye Contact feature and resolves the Camera App crash.

[/td] [/tr] [tr][td][/td] [td]Surface Camera Aux Sensor Driver Extension[/td] [td]1.0.1120.2

Enables the Eye Contact feature and resolves the Camera App crash.

[/td] [/tr] [tr][td][/td] [td]Surface Integration Service Device[/td] [td]6.83.139.0

Improves the Power status UI.

[/td] [/tr] [tr][td][/td] [td]Surface SMF[/td] [td]11.2.0.1

Improves device stability and performance.

[/td] [/tr] [tr][td][/td] [td]Qualcomm(R) Hexagon(TM) 690 DSP[/td] [td]1.0.1130.0000

Resolves bluescreen error state.

[/td] [/tr] [tr][td][/td] [td]Qualcomm(R) Adreno(TM) 680 GPU[/td] [td]26.18.1180.0000

Resolves Edge performance scenario.

[/td] [/tr] [tr][td][/td] [td]Surface Pro X Sensors Subsystem Bus Device Extension[/td] [td]1.0.710.2

Detection sensor improvement.

[/td] [/tr] [/table]
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Source: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/...update-history

Brink · Aug 20, 2020

New Surface Pro X Drivers and Firmware for Windows 10 - November 5

Improvements and fixes in the update

November 2019 updates

November 5 release

The following updates are available for Surface Pro X devices running Windows 10 May 2019 Update, version 1903 or greater:

[table][tr][td]Windows Update History Name[/td] [td]Device Manager Name[/td] [/tr] [tr][td]Microsoft Corporation – System Hardware Update – 11/05/2019[/td] [td][/td] [/tr] [tr][td][/td] [td]Surface UEFI– Firmware

3.444.140.0 improves system stability.

[/td] [/tr] [tr][td][/td] [td]Surface System Aggregator – Firmware

14.57.139.0 improves battery performance.

[/td] [/tr] [tr][td][/td] [td]Surface Pro X Integration – System devices

20.63.139.0 improves stability when in hibernation.

[/td] [/tr] [tr][td][/td] [td]Microsoft SQ1 Adreno 685 GPU – Display Adapters

26.18.800.0 improves system stability.

[/td] [/tr] [tr][td][/td] [td]Surface Pro X Power Engine Plug-in Device

1.0.0800.0 improves system stability.

[/td] [/tr] [/table]

Known issues and additional information about Surface Pro X

We are listening. Quality is a top priority, and we want to keep you informed about issues impacting customers.

Currently, there are no known issues.

Click to expand...

Source: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/...update-history

Brink · Aug 20, 2020

Surface Pro X available today

Today, we’re excited to launch what’s next for the 2-1 category – the all new Surface Pro X. When we started on this journey with Surface seven years ago, we created a new category that changed the industry forever. Now, as the world becomes more mobile and more cloud based, we’ve pushed the boundaries again with Surface Pro X to create a product that is at the intersection of mobility, productivity and speed.

What we’ve learned from our customers over the years is, as much as they love the portability, power and versatility of a 2-1, many of them also want that device that’s at the cutting edge of what’s next. This set of customers has new expectations for a modern device – the ability to be connected, productive and creative, with enough pixels and graphics performance for them to do more on the go. A device that lets them be mobile as they go from meeting to meeting to airport to hotel and back home again.

So, we pushed ourselves to evolve what it means to be mobile, powerful, and always connected with no interruption to your flow. The result is an incredibly thin, light, powerful and connected Surface. Hardware and platform innovation coming together to create an amazing experience for our customers.

Something new – custom silicon

Our vision for Surface Pro X was to take a mobile architecture and push the technology to make it a fully functioning powerful PC. To do this we created a piece of custom silicon, designed in partnership with Qualcomm. Surface Pro X is powered by the Microsoft SQ1 processor, creating a device that enables an incredible combination of pixels, performance, thinness, battery life and constant LTE connectivity.

This chip brings Snapdragon mobile DNA and an integrated AI accelerator together with incredible power. While ARM chips normally run in the 2-watt range, we know how important performance is to our customers and wanted to give them the power they need to achieve their goals.

With Microsoft SQ1 we’ve started with a phenomenal 7 watts of power by changing the chip itself, reengineering the tools and architecture for an incredibly fast, powerful experience found nowhere else. We redesigned the GPU and other silicon IP to create a product that’s 3x more performant per watt than Surface Pro 6. This means better battery life, a lighter and thinner product, and unprecedented performance, all while running full Windows, all the Office apps you love, Edge and Chrome.

Get into your flow anytime, anywhere

With the combination of the custom silicon and the amazing engineering and design work that went into the hardware, Surface Pro X is unbelievably light and thin. At 5.3mm thin at its thinnest point and 1.68lbs, it’s portable, versatile and always connected with LTE advanced. So you can work anywhere, anytime, whether you’re in the office, at home, traveling or at a coffee shop.

The display is stunning. With the thinnest bezels of any 2-1 on the market, this display provides a 13” screen in a 12” form factor, the most working space possible on a 13” screen, along with beautiful high contrast and high readability, colors that are vibrant and bright, and 2880×1920 resolution at 267 dpi.

Create intuitively

With the new Surface Pro X Signature Keyboard and Surface Slim Pen, you can create intuitively with typing, pen or touch. One of the things we’ve heard consistently from our customers is that they love using Surface Pen but want to have a way to make sure they can keep it with them, so it doesn’t get lost. With the Surface Pro X Signature Keyboard, the Pen stores securely and automatically recharges so it’s always with you and always charged.

You bring our products to life

Nothing inspires the team more than seeing the amazing things our customers do with our products. Surface Pro X is available in the US and Canada today, and additional markets where Surface is sold in the coming weeks. I can’t wait to see what you create.
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Source: Surface Pro X available today | Microsoft Devices Blog

See also: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/su...x/8VDNRP2M6HHC

Updates: New Surface Pro X Drivers and Firmware for Windows 10 - November 5

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Windows 10: Eye Contact now generally available on Surface Pro X

Eye Contact now generally available on Surface Pro X

Eye Contact now generally available on Surface Pro X

Eye Contact now generally available on Surface Pro X

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