Archive for the ‘Microsoft’ Category

A New Look at the World

Monday, April 23rd, 2007

Photosynth Imagine if your digital photos could be arranged in a collage and merged into a panoramic shot of a place. Cool, right?

Now, imagine if your pictures could be arranged in a collage and merged into a 3D representation of the pictured place, that you could take a virtual stroll through. Amazing, right?

Now, imagine the possibilities if all of your pictures, and all of my pictures, and all of everyone’s pictures could merge into a constantly improving and evolving 3D virtual Earth. (Who needs a satellite map?)

Well, it’s not quite that far along yet, but a crew of coders in Microsoft’s Live Labs are developing an amazing project called Photosynth that could one day do all of that, and more. The technology, developed in collaboration with the University of Washington and now rolling in visualization from Seadragon (a company acquired by Microsoft), can already do most of the above.

Photosynth works by analyzing each photo in a collection fed to it, determining features of interest in the photo and drawing a map of these points. The points act as a signature for the objects in the photo, and when compared with the feature points of the same objects in other pictures, allows the computer to map the photos in a three-dimensional space, in a similar way to how two images provided by our two eyes allow us to perceive depth.

As the team points out, the analysis of the photos also has the added benefit of establishing a ‘fingerprint’ for the photo that computer systems could use to identify the subject of the photo. This could lead to some really usesful applications, like the ability to photograph a landmark with your cell phone and have Photosynth technology match it and provide identification or other desired information about the landmark from the web.

Imagine a massive web-based Photosynth virtual world, where submitted photos are put together in a walkthrough globe. Google Earth is already taking steps in this direction, with 3D models that approximate buildings, and community-built markers, overlays, animations, and 3D models. Technology like Photosynth have the potential to take the idea to a whole new level of realism and utility.

(I’m a little late to the party, but a hat tip to Scobleizer for pointing this out!)

Posted in Microsoft, Photos, Web 2.0, Web Communities | 2 Comments »

…quick clicks…

Tuesday, April 10th, 2007

  • Making your own Wanted poster »wanted

    During Topshop’s London Fashion Week Mania, two black Mac Books were reportedly stolen. For the uninitiated, Macs ship with a clever little app called Photo Booth that uses the Mac’s built-in iSight camera to take portraits and add fun-house photo booth special effects (for fun, or to use as login pictures, IM icons, etc.). Apparently, Topshop had equipped these laptops with a special plugin that caused Photo Booth pics to be automatically uploaded to a Flickr gallery in the background as part of an interactive store display demo.

    Apparently, these clever thieves have found Apple’s Photo Booth software so irresistible that they have taken many of their own pictures — which PhotoBooth has dutifully uploaded to Topshop’s gallery.

    They are continuing to take and unwittingly post photos, so if you’re in the London area, take a good look and maybe you can catch a thief! Interesting to think that an Interface could be so much fun to use that it could trap a thief. Link » (Thanks to MacUser)

  • Microsoft is Dead »

    From Paul Graham:

    I didn’t notice when the shadow disappeared. … But it’s gone now. I can sense that. No one is even afraid of Microsoft anymore. They still make a lot of money—so does IBM, for that matter. But they’re not dangerous.

    Of particular interest is Graham’s assertion that “everyone can see the desktop is over. It now seems inevitable that applications will live on the web—not just email, but everything, right up to Photoshop.” Is it really though? If you have thoughts on the desktop model vs. the new generation of web-based apps, leave a comment.

    For my part, I think it’s a little early to make such sweeping pronouncements. I still feel that the future is in apps that exist in both worlds, harnessing both the hooks, privacy, and storage of the desktop and the interoperability, updates, and community of the internet. Something so simple as Mac OS X’s Dashboard (bonus Leopard link), where net content is wrapped in a truly convenient desktop app is an easy example. Link » (Thanks to Daring Fireball)

  • Opening the box »

    You’ve just spent many pretty pennies on your brand new computer, and you eagerly open the box like a child on Christmas morning. You’re excited to play with a new toy, welcome a new friend, but…

    As Walt Mossberg explores, if it’s a Windows PC, your first excitement will be doused by dozens of “craplets” that get in the way of moving into a new computer, take up hard drive space, and — perhaps worst of all — make your beautiful new computer into a sluggish billboard-fest. When the interface is hijacked, it makes the computer a lot less friendly and a lot less pleasurable to use. Is the added revenue from the demo-makers really worth it? Link »

Posted in ...quick clicks..., Applications, Interface, Microsoft, Products, Software | 1 Comment »