Microsoft showed off a lot of interesting new software and hardware projects as part of its TechFest 2013 event last week. One project that went under the radar a bit came to light today in a new article that shows a new way to learn about locations such as restaurants and bars.

The MIT Technology Review website posted a look at what the article called Bing Now, an app for Windows Phone devices that's being worked on at Microsoft Research. The app is attempting to solve a problem about online reviews for locations. Sometimes the reviews don't have the latest information and text reviews can't really give users a true idea of what the atmosphere of a place such as a bar is like.

Bing Now tries to solve this problem by having a user with the app check into a location, as they might with other social networking apps. The smartphone's microphone then takes samples of the location's sounds. The Bing Now app could then determine if the location had a "low,” “normal,” or “high" level of sound, even down to which song, if any, is playing at that location.

This kind of information could be useful if a person wanted to go to a restaurant that is quiet at a certain period of time or louder at another point in the day. At the moment, there's no word on if Bing Now will be more than just a research project.

Source: MIT Technology Review