Archive for Photography
May 19, 2008 at 10:17 am ·
Filed under MicroLife, Community, Live Services, Photography
This Saturday (the 24th of May), I’m organizing an event for amateur-photographers in downtown Amsterdam. The day starts around 12 noon with a welcome and introduction at ‘De Rode Hoed‘, a pretty classy venue naar the waterside. Around 40 photographers will be divided into 4 groups of 10, and will then board a ship that will be docked right outside the building. Right then, the challenge starts. Every group will take pictures over the course of 2 kilometers, so that in total we’ll span an 8 kilometer route from the boat. All the pictures will be collected and then stitched together using Windows Live Photo Gallery to form the world’s largest panoramic picture. The end result will be put into a DeepZoom viewer so it’ll become scrollable and zoomable and it will be sent to the Guiness Book of World Records.
The day is sponsored by Zoom.nl, Kodak, Canon and Olympus. They’ll be present to show off their latest cool gadgets and cameras, and at the end of the day some really cool prizes will be handed out in a raffle. Govert De Roos will be present during the day to guide the photographers with some tips and tricks, and he’ll host the closing keynote when everyone is back from the boat, around 5 PM. After that, there’ll be a walking dinner and a moment to network or talk to the sponsors.
If you’re an amateur photographer and would like to participate in this project, surf to the dedicated Live Space for more information (in Dutch) or send an email to photo-event@live.nl to enroll.
The event is co-hosted by the OSG and DPE department of Microsoft -The Netherlands.
May 6, 2008 at 3:01 pm ·
Filed under PR, Live Services, Photography
The script writers of CSI:NY used Photosynth in last week’s episode. That’s really cool :) Here’s how the story went and where the product has been used:
“A guidance counselor at a Manhattan prep school is murdered while the prom is taking place in the gymnasium.
Forensic scientists for the New York police attempt to recreate the crime scene by uploading hundreds of camera phone thumbnail photos snapped at the dance onto a computer.
The PC screen fills up in a concentric square pattern, revealing a wide shot of the gym at the center. Investigators can manipulate the images to show close-ups of the scene from every angle.” (Source)
Photosynth is one of my favorite tools at the moment. Pretty soon, when they release the new client, I’ll publish the demos I’ve recorded about this technology. I can’t show them yet though, so you’ll have to sit on your hunger for a couple of months. All I can say is that it’s really really awesome :)
Screenshot of CSI:NY
Link: Photosynth
May 6, 2008 at 11:10 am ·
Filed under Releases, Live Services, Photography, Digital Life
Microsoft Pro Photo Tools provides a set of tools for photographers to perform various tasks with their images—including RAW captures. The current version enables you to quickly geotag your photos, view and edit metadata, and more, leveraging the power of Windows and Microsoft Live Local. Very closely related, this cool Outlook plugin just saw the daylight: Microsoft Pro Photo Shoot is a new software add-in for Microsoft Office Outlook that allows photographers to add details of the client and equipment for a photo shoot appointment in Outlook. This allows photographers to greater leverage the power of Outlook when managing their photography.
Pro Photo Tools includes the following features:
- Geotagging with flexibility
As geotagging gains popularity, photographers want to be able to quickly identify the location for their images. With Pro Photo Tools, you can gather location information from a variety of sources and apply it to the metadata in your images.
- Determine location name automatically
With Pro Photo Tools, you can automatically apply the actual name of the location where a photo was taken based on the GPS coordinates. Instead of numbers, you’ll have the “real” names, and that information can then be saved in the metadata for your photos.
Determine GPS coordinates from location name. Just because you haven’t always had a GPS receiver doesn’t mean you can’t assign GPS coordinates to your photos. In fact, using the power of Microsoft Live Local you can determine the GPS coordinates where any photo was taken based on location name information in the image metadata. The GPS coordinates can then be added to the metadata for your photos and the photos plotted on a map.
- Identify location on a map
For the maximum in flexibility when assigning a location to an image, you can navigate to the precise location where you took a given photo and tag the photo with that location information based on a specific position on the map.
- View images on a map
As cool as it is to have GPS coordinate information connected to your images, to really get a sense of place with your photos, you need to view them on a map. Pro Photo Tools utilizes Windows Live Local to display your images on a map of the world, including the ability to view your images on a normal map or a satellite view of the world.
- Edit image metadata
Metadata has become increasingly important to photographers as a way to manage and organize their images. Among the many things it enables is a rich capability to search for images. You can now update a wide range of metadata for your images using Pro Photo Tools, and that metadata gets stored in the actual image file, so wherever your photo goes, your data goes.
- RAW support
By leveraging the Windows Imaging Components (WIC), we’re able to provide support for any RAW file format (in addition to TIFF and JPEG) for which a codec has been developed. And that includes most RAW file formats. Not only can you view your RAW images within Pro Photo Tools, you can also update metadata—including GPS coordinates—directly in the file. The updated metadata is stored within the RAW file, not in a cumbersome “sidecar” file. (For information on obtaining codecs for your RAW images or other file formats, visit (Codecs for Windows )
- Extensibility
Pro Photo Tools was built with extensibility in mind. Rather than creating a one-off tool, we created a framework we can leverage for future tools. This will allow us to add additional functionality in future versions of Pro Photo Tools more efficiently. That means you’ll get more features sooner.
Downloads:
Microsoft Pro Photo Tools
Microsoft Pro Photo Shoot
Very closely related cool stuff:
Microsoft Photo Info
SyncToy v.2.0 Beta
HD Photo Plug-In for Photoshop
December 8, 2007 at 3:06 am ·
Filed under MicroLife, Video, Technology, Photography, WoW
Last week I was at the Inspiration Week in The Hague and I got the chance to look around and check out some pretty impressive things. It took me a while to get all the movies done, since I was kinda busy and on the road a lot, but I’m trying to backtrack and post as much videos as I can during the next couple of days.
So, here is an interview with Tim Van der Zijden from NXP, who came to the Inspiration Playground with a mobile phone, a printer and a digital picture frame. That might not be so inspirational at first sight, but the WoW factor is in the speed and ease of use of the devices. Just look at the video, and it’ll be all clear :)
Video: NXP Bluetooth Printing
What I really like about this setup is how portable it makes digital living; how fast it transmits an image and the fact that the image is fully printed during the time it takes to transfer the image over bluetooth. As for the digital photo frame… I can see a device like this at, for instance, your mom’s house and then when you pass by on a Sunday afternoon, you simply put the latest picture of the kids in the frame. Some phones nowadays already have a decent image quality (3 to 5 Megapixels) so that should pretty much be enough to deliver a nice image I think.
November 12, 2007 at 3:25 pm ·
Filed under Technology, Releases, Photography
One of the cool things I started playing with recently is the HD View, a new viewer developed by Microsoft Research’s Interactive Visual Media group to aid in the display and interaction with very large images. Recent advances in camera and sensor technology and software for stitching images together has led to the creation of images containing billions of pixels (gigapixels). These images are often panoramic, that is, they cover very wide fields of view. Since monitors typically contain only one to two million pixels, it is only possible to actually see 1/1000th of such image data at once. Also, viewing very wide fields of view require unwrapping of an image projected onto a curved surface (think of a map of the world) which can cause distortions.
HD View was developed with a number of goals in mind. It should:
- allow smooth panning and zooming on large images,
- only download enough data to create the current view (and possibly look ahead to the next), and
- always display the current field of view with an appropriate projection. This means that when zoomed way in you should be presented with a standard perspective projection providing a sense of immersion, and when zoomed out you experience a curved projection so that get a full overview of the scene. In between the projection should smoothly transition.
- Finally, it should be easy to create your own HD View content and present it to the world via the web.
You can find the tool to help you create your own HD Views at the MS Research Center (available for download)
To be able to view the HD pictures, you need to install a client. The IE client can be found here. If you’re a Firefox lover, direct your digital self to this link.
Check out this cool stuff in action on the XREZ site.
May 18, 2007 at 12:51 pm ·
Filed under PR, Community, Photography
Today we launch the Korean Gyeongbok Palace Photosynth collection, the culmination of an unprecedented buzz promotion linking photo enthusiasts to emerging Microsoft technologies. It is the first Photosynth collection ever constructed in partnership with professional and hobbyist photographers in Asia. Over 4,000 photos were contributed by the Korean community via a Windows Live promotion in just a few short weeks (and 12 positive press articles there reaching over 5 million at the promotion launch). After a lot of hard work at Live Labs, it’s ready to be shared with the world. MS Korea will be sending press releases to key media in addition to engaging top bloggers.
Gyeongbokgung (Gyeongbok Palace) is one of South Korea’s finest national treasures. Originally built in 1394, it is the largest palace of the Joseon Dynasty. At its height in the mid 1800’s, it covered 330 buildings and over 4 million square feet as the grand home for the royal family. Millions of tourists each year walk the stone foundations for a closer look at the ceremonial facilities, dragons and wooden canopies over the throne.
Quote from Adam Sheppard, Live Labs:
“We were very excited to work with MSN Korea to create a synth of Gyeongbok Palace. Koreans are widely recognized as being early adopters and innovators with photography and web technology and it was a fantastic opportunity to see how users photographs could really bring the palace to life. We found ourselves spending hours exploring the environment, zooming in on the fine details, and flying over the building and square. It really is a unique way of exploring a location in tremendous detail, giving people a chance to imagine what it would be like to stand in the shoes of somebody who was actually there.”
Professional photographer Kang Tae-Gu provided valuable support in taking detailed shots of the palace for construction of the collection. I must say I’m pretty impressed about the quality of the pictures and the overall look and feel of the virtual walk-through. Amazing how many pictures have been sent in, and it comes to show that with a little help of the right communities, you can create and share experiences that are really remarkable.
See this collection
Live Labs Photosynth Team Blog
