Windows Experience Blog : Microsoft Live Labs

Microsoft Live Labs Releases Color Picker Gadget

Brandon LeBlanc — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 08:58:00 GMT

I caught this bit of news tonight from Redmond Pie’s awesome Web Slice for IE8 Beta 2 which shows their latest headlines: Microsoft Live Labs has released a really neat Color Picker Gadget for Windows Sidebar.

Download: Color Picker Gadget from Microsoft Live Labs

Essentially the Color Picker Gadget gives users quick access to RGB color hex codes. This could be extremely handy when working with several apps or doing website development and you’re needing to utilize a palette across the board. This Gadget allows you to create and save your own color palettes and search palettes from the website COLOURlovers. This was a side project of Live Labs Designer Jeff Weir. For more information, check out this post on the Microsoft Live Labs Blog.

Photosynth Goes Public: Create Your Own Today!

Brandon LeBlanc — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 05:16:00 GMT

Today, Microsoft Live Labs has announced the worldwide availability of Photosynth where users can create their own Photosynth collections - or "Synths" - for free. Previously, Photosynth was only available as a Technology Preview without the ability to create your own Synths.

To start using Photosynth yourself, just head on over to the new Photosynth website and login with your Windows Live ID and create a Photosynth ID. This Photosynth ID will be tied to whatever Synths you create. Depending on the number of photos in your Synth, it could take anywhere between 2 to 30 or more minutes to create and upload. When you create a Synth, you can give your Synth a name, description and even assign it some tags. Everyone is given a quote of 20GB for their Synths.

To view and create Synths, a 7MB plug-in must be installed first from either Internet Explorer (6 or 7) or Mozilla Firefox (2 or 3).

The Photosynth plug-in does all of the processing - or "synthing" - of your photos prior to uploading the results to the Photosynth website.

The installation of this plug-in also puts a link to Photosynth on your Start Menu for quick Photosynth access!

So how does Photosynth work? Photosynth analyzes your photos for similarities to your other photos in the set and then uses the information to estimate where the photos were was taken from. Photosynth then re-creates the place the photos were taken and uses that as a canvas to display your photos. Pretty neat huh? The work done in analyzing your photos is done via the above mentioned Photosynth plug-in.

Want to know how to make good Synths? No problem. Check out the Photosynth Guide which explains in great detail how to take photos that can be used to create good Synths in Photosynth. You can also watch this awesome "How-to" video from Laura Foy on creating good Synths in Photosynth as well.

You should also check out the Encyclopedia of Life Synths. These are great examples of some of the Synths you can create. The Encyclopedia of Life is a global project to document and photography the Earth's 1.8 million species and make the information freely available via the Internet.

Photosynth allows you to also embed Synths directly into websites and blog posts. To celebrate tonight's launch - I've created my very first Synth from images taken a few months ago from the top of the Space Needle. I took a lot of shots from different angles that I thought would make a perfect Synth.

Click here to view a larger version of my Synth.

My Space Needle Synth consisted of 95 images. Those 95 images together was about 176MB. It took me about 20 minutes to "synth" these photos together and upload them to the Photosynth website. Each Synth has a "synthiness" rating. My Space Needle Synth has 96% Synthy. The more synthy you are - the more "connected" your photos are in that Synth. You want to be synthy.

Photosynth is a very exciting release and I can't wait to see all the cool Synths people will be uploading. Try out Photosynth today and leave a comment with a link to some of your Synths for me to check out!

Channel 10's Nic Fillingham got to sit down and chat with several members of the Photosynth Team for Channel 10's photography show ShutterSpeed. Give it a watch.

Be sure to keep your eyes on the Photosynth Team Blog for more on Photosynth!

UPDATED: New Deep Zoom Composer Released with PhotoZoom Upload

Brandon LeBlanc — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 03:29:00 GMT

On Friday, a new build of Deep Zoom Composer was released sporting some really neat new functionality including the ability to upload collections to Microsoft Live Labs PhotoZoom.

Download (UPDATED): Deep Zoom Composer (8/3/2008 Release)

Microsoft Live Labs PhotoZoom is designed to let users show off their photos with Deep Zoom and Silverlight by allowing users to upload their Deep Zoom collections to the web. To upload my collection, all I needed to do was login using my Windows Live ID in Deep Zoom Composer under "PhotoZoom Export".

NOTE: Before you are able to upload a collection, you must first go to the Microsoft Live Labs PhotoZoom website and login to create an account associated with your Windows Live ID.

Once signed in, I can create a new album, give it an album name, choose image format and quality and upload. I can also add to existing collections.

After I published a collection to PhotoZoom - I can embed that collection into a website or blog post to share the collection with others. Here is my first "test" Deep Zoom collection on PhotoZoom. It's a panoramic shot I stitched together using Windows Live Photo Gallery from a recent trip to Smith Rock State Park in Central Oregon. To view this collection you will need Silverlight 2.0 Beta 2.

You will be able to find any future Deep Zoom collections from me here on PhotoZoom. I'll be publishing a bigger collection from my Central Oregon Trip in the very near future.

Currently - PhotoZoom Upload functionality inside Deep Zoom Composer may not be working properly. A fix is expected very soon. I'll edit this post once a fix is released and you can also watch their blog for further updates.

Deep Zoom Composer also now utilizes the same technology developed by Microsoft Research for panoramic stitching - also seen in Windows Live Photo Gallery.

UPDATE 8/5/2008 PLEASE READ: The Deep Zoom Composer Team released a newer August build on August 4th to fix several issues with the PhotoZoom Upload. You can read their blog post about the updated release here. I've edited the above download link to reflect the newer release from August 4th.