28

Jan

2008

Sometimes the future hits you right between the eyes

There are days when you turn around and see something so amazing that it really rocks your world. There are days when you realise that the future is already present.

This is definitely one of these moments. Check out the attached video and hyperlinks to see some really amazing technology currently being developed in Microsoft's labs.

this movie shows you a presentation on a process that allows you to slide visually through vast arrays of visual information, in fact you get the impression you could potentially drift seamlessly from vast overviews down into microscopic details without pause.

The second half looks at a computer program that wanders through the web looking for images and matching them to all the other images out there on the web, creating huge networks of linked information.  The example they give is of a large gothic building built up from thousands of happy snaps, many different individual moments captured by digital cameras and phones and then posted onto Flickr, the photo archive.  Each photo captures a small fragment of the overall building, but the  computer program takes all these unrelated fragments and stitches them together seamlessly to create a whole image, not only revealing the building, but revealing it in 3D too.

Their video presentation

Their website

http://labs.live.com/photosynth/

(Internet Explorer, Windows XP SP2 or Vista only) - (typical for microsoft)

For more info check out:

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/129

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photosynth

Interesting Microsoft moment

Just the other day I posted an article that was a bit negative about Microsoft's recent offerings of Windows and Office. Halfway through the video above you see the presenter a bit taken aback from the applause he receives. He says something along the lines that he never expected to work for Microsoft, and that he is relieved that he is getting applauded.

I think it is great to see the company rolling out such brilliant products, but I think it is rather telling also that, especially in many areas of the IT community, Microsoft's reputation is now so tarnished and expectations grown so cynical.

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