Microsoft PhotoSynth

It's been a while since I've posted. But anyway...

Microsoft finally released a public version of Photosynth under the domain Photosynth.net

Photosyth has been previously talked about under the project name SeaDragon in Microsoft Labs and was recently demoed at the MIX'08 conference . It's nice to see it finally become open for public consumption. Like some of the other next-gen computer applications that are beginning to surface (seam carving, audio scope, photo to video mapping, etc), Photosynth pulls your data together and finds matching patterns that it can then build into new and some times fascinating results.

Photosynth is interesting because it can take multiple photos of a location and apply image recognition techiques to then calculate where each picture belongs in 3D space in relation to the others. Then it will map those pixels into a sort of 3D-connect-the-dots environment that you can pan around in and see, virtually, where the original photographer was standing.

One thing you might notice as you pan around in an image space is that the closer you get to any given photo the more detail you will see come into focus (up to a point). Photosynth uses a technique that only displays as many pixels as you need at your current zoom level. This benefits internet viewing because you don't have to download all the data before the image can be displayed. An offshoot of Photosynth was used in the recent Hard Rock Cafe Memorabilia site where you can view memorability from any of their locations online. The cool factor in this is that these are not just normal photos. They all allow you to zoom in ... and in ... and in ... and in. The gallery is made up of hundreds of extreme close up and high res photos all seamlessly pieced together by the software. And then all streamed to your browser at just the right resolution, no more and no less. Both applications are very cool to play around with and I can only imagine what sort of technologies might spawn from this in the future.

Imagine, one day we might have computers scanning the Internet for photos of similar locations and automatically piecing them together to build 3D environments which would let anyone view the location from virtually any angle and at various points in history. I'm sure eventually this sort of technology could also be improved upon to generate a more traditional 3D wire frame model that could be mapped to a virtual globe and let users explore it with photo realism. A self generating and updating 3D cyber world. The science fiction writers will probably have fun with that.

And speaking of fiction, Photosynth has already made an appearance in the popular CSI:NY television show where it was used to help the investigators rebuild the scene of a crime and determine who might have been in the right place at the right time to commit the crime. I don't know if Photosynth has actually been used yet to help in crime investigations, but it's an interesting idea.

One day Photosynth may join the crime fighting ranks for real, but for now it has joined the never ending flood of community based websites where you can publish your results and share them with family and friends. Next time you are on vacation take photos of everything you see and from ever angle in which you can see it. Photosynth works best if you can provide it with photos of various angles. As long as their are multiple points in each photo that can be matched up to the same points in another photos, then Photosynth can properly calculate the angles and build your scene. It works a little bit like camera tracking software used in the movie industry; the more distinctly matching points it can find between photos, the better it can map it to it's 3D coordinate system.

There is no telling how this technology will inspire some future inventor and then what amazing new technologies will unfold as a result. Invention usually builds upon ideas from past inventions, so only time will tell. For now just go and have fun connecting all your pixels together.

Microsoft Releases Pro Photo Tools v1.0

Microsoft released an interesting tool for photographers this past week. A photo metadata editing tool. Interesting.

Microsoft Pro Photo Tools v1.0



Upon installation it adds an entry to the right click menu of photos for easy access. Although I seem to have trouble opening multiple photos from the right click without closing the editor each time. However you can drag and drop multiple files into the thumbnail area with ease.

One nice feature is the ability to attach GPS data to older photos and view the location mapped to a Microsoft Maps view. Very much similar to the online Picasa Web photos.

The rest of the data fields seem pretty standard if you own Photoshop, GIMP, or any other higher end photo editor. I would eventually like to see this level of metadata straight from the OS file browser. But for now this is getting there. Perhaps we'll see these same features integrated into the next Windows 7 or a new release of Windows Live Photo Gallery.

Vista SP1 - release announcement

Well it looks like Microsoft has finally released Vista SP1 to manufacturing (as nearly every tech blog on the web seems to be reporting about). If you want to read up on the nitty-gritty specs, go and get a copy of this PDF from Microsoft.

Notable changes in Windows Vista SP1.pdf

Although I haven't had a chance to test SP1 first hand yet, my favorite list of improvements are:

1. SP1 reduces the number of UAC (User Account Control) prompts from 4 to 1 when creating or renaming a folder at a protected location.
   As someone who likes to keep the start menu organized, the constant double prompting to double confirm a copy, create, or rename, just about drove me crazy. If this has been improved the way it is suggested, I will be most pleased.
   
2. Enables support for hotpatching, a reboot-reduction servicing technology designed to maximize uptime. It works by allowing Windows components to be updated (or "patched") while they are still in use by a running process. Hotpatch-enabled update packages are installed via the same methods as traditional update packages, and will not trigger a system reboot.
   Now, I am really hoping this will fix the "middle of the night" reboots from Windows Automatic Updates. One thing that has bugged me about Vista and the auto update was how many times I would come in the next morning and realized that an update had rebooted a system that was in the middle of a work in progress. I eventually just turned of the auto update feature. Perhaps with SP1 I'll be able to trust this again. We'll see.
   
3. Improves responsiveness when doing many kinds of file or media manipulations. For example, with Windows Vista today, copying files after deleting a different set of files can make the copy operation take longer than needed. In SP1, the file copy time is the same as if no files were initially deleted.
   Man, this is another one of those "about time" fixes. There are about four points listed on page 9 that talk about file management and copying improvements. I don't know what my exact problem sources were, but hopefuly this will help the annoying issues I have been having with moving or deleting files that were in the middle of a thumbnail generation. And any general speed improvements (which seem slower than XP) will be welcome.
   
4. Improves reliability of OS updates by making them more resilient to unexpected interruptions, such as power failure.
   Ok, I don't know about anyone else, but this has the potential to make my life easier. I run tech support for a few systems in Africa where they have a tendency to loose power a couple times each day. This of course makes it inevitable that a power loss will occur during a hotfix installation. It has happened with XP a couple of times cause system problem. Maybe this will reduce the long term chances of problems with that issue.

And finally, the simple fact that over a hundred megabytes of hot fixes will be wrapped up into a single download (that can be mailed to Africa, for instance) will be enough to justify the existence of SP1 for me.

I really wish Microsoft would make a habit of issuing a service pack or hotfix roll up once a year. When trying to support multiple systems connected at dialup speeds or (worse) limited cell phone minutes, it becomes a bit ridiculous to require 100+ MB of updates anytime you do a new install. SP1 will be a relief in that area alone (at least for a few months).