Next Generation Mobile Visual Media

Surfing across the web I came across some information about some ideas and concoctions brewing over at Microsoft Live Lab. For those of you who can appreciate Google Earth, Vector Imaging, EBooks, and Visual Media in general will definitely appreciate the technology and the endless capabilities behind Seadragon’s goals.

The goal of Seadragon is to alter the way users use valuable screen reality without affecting quality and bandwidth. This is a critical concern for mobile users and the eventual evolution of the internet. Visual information can be smoothly browsed regardless of the size of a file or your network’s bandwidth.

The Four Promises of Seadragon:

1. Speed of navigation is independent of the size or number of objects.
2. Performance depends only on the ratio of bandwidth to pixels on the screen.
3. Transitions are smooth as butter.
4. Scaling is near perfect and rapid for screens of any resolution.

I was wondering when Microsoft was going to step in and blow Open Source out of the water. Everyone likes FREE, but when money is invested into companies, employees are rewarded, and techonolgy has value, ideas leave the drawing board and become reality. he Seadragon team is currently tuning its DirectX implementation, making the most of the new Windows Media Photo format, and cranking on the Photosynth Technology Preview.

The Photosynth Technology Preview is a taste of the newest - and, we hope, most exciting - way to view photos on a computer. Our software takes a large collection of photos of a place or an object, analyzes them for similarities, and then displays the photos in a reconstructed three-dimensional space, showing you how each one relates to the next.

In our collections, you can access gigabytes of photos in seconds, view a scene from nearly any angle, find similar photos with a single click, and zoom in to make the smallest detail as big as your monitor.

Photosynth is an amazing new technology from Microsoft Live Labs that will change forever the way you think about digital photos.

Our software takes a large collection of photos of a place or an object, analyzes them for similarities, and displays them in a reconstructed three-dimensional space.

With Photosynth you can:

• Walk or fly through a scene to see photos from any angle.
• Seamlessly zoom in or out of a photo whether it’s megapixels or gigapixels in size.
• See where pictures were taken in relation to one another.
• Find similar photos to the one you’re currently viewing.
• Send a collection - or a particular view of one - to a friend.

There’s nothing standard about Photosynth technology, and there’s nothing standard about the way we’re putting it together, either.

We started with an amazingly fruitful collaboration between the University of Washington and Microsoft Research. We rolled in the luscious visualization technology of the recently acquired Seadragon startup, the speed and compression goodness of the new Windows Media Photo format, the product prowess of the PIX team, and the internet expertise of the Windows Live Local product group. Thrown together in the fertile soup of Live Labs this organic structure is evolving into something quite new - a team with the boldness of a research organization and the shipping discipline of a product group.

:: Click To View Photosynth Collection ::

Mobile browsing technology has become easier and much more enjoyable with Microsoft Labs’ Deepfish. Deepfish is a new type of mobile browser, which provides a full ‘as designed’ view of web pages on mobile devices. The unique user interface loads an overview image of the entire page layout and allows a user to zoom in and out on the parts of the page they are interested in. Deepfish loads the overview image first and then the more detailed sections are loaded as requested or in the background as the overview is browsed, resulting in a much faster page load experience as well. All together, it provides a more intuitive, desktop-like experience than traditional mobile browsers.

Deepfish is a lightweight client application that leverages a powerful server side technology for delivery of content such as web pages to a Windows Mobile device. Content is displayed in a familiar desktop format that requires no additional work by the content or site author.

Deepfish provides:

• A familiar look and feel of web pages on mobile as seen on desktop.
• Bandwidth optimized rendering for faster content delivery.
• Address bar web navigation.
• Intuitive zooming, panning and cue map for quick navigation and browsing.
• Support for simple link navigation and form submission.

Current Limitations

As a technology preview, Deepfish is early in its development cycle (still a few releases from beta quality). As a result some features are not implemented or are only partially implemented. Currently, the technology preview does not support ActiveX controls, AJAX, cookies, Javascript, and HTTP POST.

Currently, the Deepfish technology preview is available only on a limited basis. Access to the technology preview is provided on a first come, first serve basis and the technology preview will be closed to new participants once our initial limit is reached. We may increase the size of the preview over time to gather additional feedback and preview new features. If you were unable to get access to the first round and would still to try Deepfish, please stay tuned to the team blog for updates.

:: Click To Take Deepfish For a Swim ::