LiveSide - News blog : Deep Zoom

Seadragon.com – Convert Any Image On The Web Into A Deep Zoom Image!

Sunshine — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 10:35:09 GMT

Ever wanted a deep zoom image of a huge image already uploaded to the web? Now you can. The Seadragon team in Live Labs has released a service that lets you easily turn those pictures into nice zoomable UIs: Seadragon. Seadragon is built on Azure and gives you the following benefits:

Images always load up really fast, no matter how big the image is
You can zoom and pan smoothly to every detail of the image

Furthermore it is so smart it even determines if it is being watched on a computer/device with Silverlight installed or not because it uses parts of Seadragon AJAX for its rendering. If no Silverlight is found it will default to using AJAX.

The usage is simple, you just type in the URL to the image and it will be converted for you. Next you can share the result on Delicious, Digg, Facebook or Twitter. Want to embed or just need the URL to the image, the embed code and URL is also given after completion of the conversion.

Now this is a very nice service for single images. If you want to make complete albums there is still DeepZoomPix (hosting, until December 31st 2009) and the Deep Zoom Composer, which allows you to either upload to DeepZoomPix or export.

Michael Jackson In Silverlight

Sunshine — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 09:16:31 GMT

MSN UK has a whole page dedicated to the recently departed Michael Jackson. Who doesn’t know what he ment for music and dance? You can find just about anything about Michael Jackson on this tribute page. Most prominent is a Silverlight application featuring hundreds of photos of Michael Jackson, his life, his work, his fans and tributes to his career as King of Pop.

You can zoom in (using the scroll wheel of your mouse, by clicking or by using the navigation buttons) and drag around (hold mouse button and move) to look at all the separate photos, varying from Michael’s childhood to more recent ones. Just make sure you have installed the latest version of Silverlight. All photos in this Silverlight gallery © Press Association.

This sure is a nice way to remember Michael Jackson, may he Rest In Peace.

Source: Deep Zoom into MJ’s Life in Pictures | Sarah In Tampa | Channel 10

Deep Zoom Composer - June 2009 Preview Available

Sunshine — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 07:52:22 GMT

The Deep Zoom Composer June 2009 Preview is now available for download. The Deep Zoom Composer now uses way less memory than it did before, so you can work with more images in your composition. Furthermore there are new ways to navigate, the possibility to link images to external URLs, updated Collection Exporting and more…

Download Deep Zoom Composer

As always, please uninstall all existing versions of Deep Zoom Composer before installing the new version. A lot of the features that were introduced are a bit rough on the edges, so the team is going to be investing heavily in the UI/styling/usability of them for upcoming releases. So feel free to comment on things you like or don’t like in comments on their post here.

Deep Zoom Composer Updated To Support Publishing To DeepZoomPix!

Sunshine — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 09:34:26 GMT

Just two days ago, we were wondering if the Deep Zoom Composer will be updated for use with DeepZoomPix, as it previously supported uploading to PhotoZoom. Wonder no more! It has indeed been updated and you can download it, right here, right now!

Download Deep Zoom Composer

As always, please uninstall all existing versions of Deep Zoom Composer before installing the new version. You can leave any feedback you have on the forums or in a comment to this team post.

Thanks team for updating so quickly!

Deep Zoom Composer – February 2009 Preview Released

Sunshine — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 10:30:35 GMT

Another update to the Deep Zoom Composer has just been released. This release only contains fixes to issues that were reported to the team. More information on these fixes can be found on the Expression Blend and Design team blog.

Download Deep Zoom Composer

Not sure on how to use Deep Zoom Composer? Check out the User Guide. You can access this by going to Help > User Guide or by pressing F1. Any ideas for future Deep Zoom Composer releases? Let the team know here!

Deep Zoom Composer Forum
Previous Deep Zoom Composer articles

Deep Zoom Composer Has Been Updated: Documentation And Bug Fixes!

Sunshine — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 13:08:54 GMT

When I found that I couldn’t open previous projects, I headed over to the Deep Zoom Composer Forum to let the team know of this problem. Kirupa was quick to respond to me and I’ve sent him one of the non-opening .dzprj files for investigation, as did others.

As a result there now is a new Deep Zoom Composer release which no longer has this problem, at least not for me. I sure hope you didn’t delete your old project files! Should you still have said problem, please send your non-opening .dzprj files to Kirupa (address can be found in their blog post), so they can look into it.

Besides this improved project support the memory handling has also been improved, the Seadragon Ajax Templates have been updated again and various other tweaks were done.

Download Deep Zoom Composer

NOTE: Please uninstall any older versions of Deep Zoom Composer prior to installing this new version.

Don’t forget to check out the updated documentation! It has become a true User Guide with topics ranging from what Deep Zoom is to how to actually use Deep Zoom Composer. You can access the User Guide inside Deep Zoom Composer by going to Help > User Guide or by pressing F1.

Feel free to post your questions or comments over at the team blog or at the Deep Zoom Composer Forum. They do listen!

Flickr And SmugMug Users: Easily Create DeepZoom Albums With Mooncake [updated]

Sunshine — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 13:03:46 GMT

There already was PhotoZoom from mslivelabs (upload photos one by one or from an RSS or Atom feed) to create DeepZoom albums. Now Flickr and SmugMug users get their own easy way to create Silverlight DeepZoom albums. Felix Wang ~~created~~ introduces Mooncake, which was created specifically for this purpose:

I'm please to share a prototype of server side Deep Zoom generation, it's called codename Mooncake.

It can pull photos from flickr or other sites, generate an album up in the cloud automatically, and present it in a nice sleek viewer powered by Deep Zoom.

You can embed it in your web site or blog posts…

You can try it at http://mooncake.nxmix.com/

If you like it please register at http://beta.redmooncake.net

Thanks to Vasudev for this tip!

Update: Clarification from Felix Wang in his updated post:

I have to clarify one important fact that: I'm NOT the author of this project. Allan Li from http://nxmix.com/ created it, and we are working closely with Allan to move forward this project. My apologizes if my original post sounded like I created it. I like this project, and I'm really proud of Allan and this project.

Thanks Felix, article updated.

Felix Wang | Evangelizing the Next Web : Mooncake Anyone?
meraTechPort - Mooncake : Create Deep Zoom tile sets from your flickr streams
LiveSino - Mooncake - 利用 Flickr 等相册照片创建 Deep Zoom

Deep Zoom Composer Updated: Seajax Support, New API, And More!

Sunshine — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 11:04:00 GMT

The Deep Zoom Composer got an update.

What’s new in this release:

- Seadragon Ajax Support, you can now export your compositions as a Seadragon Ajax project
Seadragon AJAX is a JavaScript-based implementation of the Deep Zoom functionality found in Silverlight. This can be used if you don’t want to “force” your readers to install Silverlight and still want to offer zoom capabilities.
- New and Improved API, easier integration of Deep Zoom tiling functionality into your own applications through a .NET/managed DLL
- Updated Project Templates for both Silverlight and Seadragon AJAX

Besides these there are numerous bug fixes.

Note: uninstall any previous version you might have of the deep Zoom composer before installing this new version.

Unlike previous versions this version is not backwards compatible: you will not be able to open your previous compositions! Instead you will be presented with the following prompt:

Install a new version eh? You can check if you have the latest version by opening up Deep Zoom composer, then navigate to Help > About Deep Zoom Composer and check if it says November 2008 Release. Of course you have the latest, you just installed it!

Don’t delete those old projects just yet, this may just be a mistake. We’ll keep you posted!

Download Deep Zoom Composer
Deep Zoom Composer Forum

HD View: ICE, Photoshop Plugin, And Hdmake Updates

Sunshine — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 22:10:00 GMT

Following the Deep Zoom Composer and the PhotoZoom website, ICE (Image Composite Editor) and the HD View Utilities (Photoshop Plugin and hdmake) have also been updated to work with Silverlight 2 now.

In addition to getting the latest Silverlight 2.0 goodness, this ICE release addresses several issues reported by our users:

- we now offer http download instead of ftp

- the crash on second use bug has been fixed

- the random drop of one image from the result is fixed

- the metadata issue that prevented geotiffs from loading is fixed

And that’s not all! Programmers take note of the following:

Also due to popular demand we are releasing the source code for HD View SL, the Silverlight based viewer that is output by ICE and by the Photoshop Plugin. As this name indicates we are gradually migrating HD View, a Windows only browser plugin, to HD View SL, a cross-platform Silverlight Rich Internet Application. There are still some significant differences between HD View and HD View SL but we are confident that these differences will gradually disappear. For a detailed comparison of the two technologies please see the HD View SL CodePlex page.

If you are interested in Silverlight programming I encourage you to download the source and start making customizations to the viewer. Some customizations that I would love to see are different navigation UI, auto-scroll of the view, and keyboard short-cuts.

Go get your updates today!

Download ICE
Download HD View Utilities

HD View Live Space
ICE Forums
HD View Photoshop Plugin and hdmake tool
ICE Released

Deep Zoom Composer And PhotoZoom Site Updated For Silverlight 2

Sunshine — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 10:03:00 GMT

We already told you that Microsoft Released Silverlight 2, but along with that a new version of the Deep Zoom Composer has also been released.

Nothing new in this version besides reliability improvements and that it now works with the newly released Silverlight 2. The team is focusing on improving existing features as they are getting close to wrapping up work on version 1 of this powertoy. Details on some of those under the hood changes will be posted on their Blog in the upcoming months.

As you already know, via the Deep Zoom Composer you can upload to PhotoZoom, so this site has also been updated to work with the new Silverlight 2 release.

Download Deep Zoom Composer

You can leave your feedback here or on the Deep Zoom Composer Forums.

Did you know: you can launch the Deep Zoom Composer by double-clicking on the project file (.DZPRJ) itself.

Previous LiveSide articles:
Deep Zoom Composer
Photo Zoom

Image Composite Editor Released

John OBrien — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 08:54:10 GMT

ICE, a technology behind Windows Live Photo Gallery advanced panoramic image stitching was released today. You can download the x86 here and the x64 here.

We have seen this technology in Windows Live Photo Gallery for some time now and more recently inside Deep Zoom Composer for Silverlight.

Matt Uyttendaele has the lowdown announcing this as the best image stitching tool shipped to date:

A GPU accelerated orientation adjustment tool. Sometimes the automatic stitching software doesn't quite get the viewing direction correct, or perhaps you want to use a rectilinear projection instead of a cylindrical projection. This new tool allows you to interactively make these adjustments.

360 blending support. Our fast poisson blend technique now creates a seamless 360 blend.

Output to Photoshop layers.

Create an HD View web page.

Create a Silverlight Deep Zoom web page, including new 360 support in our Silverlight application.

Integration with both the Windows Shell and the next version of Windows Live Photo Gallery, so that you can quickly launch a new stitching project.

I fired up a 360 degree panorama in Vista64 and found the new application very fast and accurate. Take it for a spin yourself! Bonus points for the person that works out how to enable the “new 360 support in our Silverlight application”

Windows Live On Facebook

Sunshine — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 04:20:00 GMT

On Facebook there are some applications about making use of Windows Live Services. I’d like to take a moment to highlight some of them.

Windows Live Messenger
With over a million users just 4 months after its launch, probably the most known of all. This one recently got a big upgrade. One of the most exiting new features is the possibility to update your Facebook status message from Windows Live Messenger! You can now set your Facebook status with your Messenger personal message. All you have to do for that is to allow this in the Messenger application's setting page:

I seem to have some problems with this feature, as in it’s not working on the new Facebook….could be just me, let me know your experiences with it….

The chat box, so people can chat with you from your Facebook profile, isn’t added automatically in the new Facebook either. To get the box (in “Boxes” tab by default) you will have to navigate to Applications > Edit All Applications, click All Applications in the left pane, then click the pencil icon behind the Messenger application an choose “Edit Settings” and on the Profile tab click “add”:

Quite some workaround…..Facebook hasn’t gotten any easier with its new lay-out :(

Photozoom
Make your Photo Albums Zoom. PhotoZoom creates zooming albums from your photos, using Microsoft Silverlight Deep Zoom technology. PhotoZoom automatically imports your Facebook photo albums each time you visit the settings page. On this settings page you can also tell the application which albums you would like to show on Facebook. You can create additional albums, upload high resolution pictures, import your photos from other photo sites and more at the PhotoZoom website or you can be in control of the layout and create your album with the Deep Zoom Composer (which also uploads to the Photozoom website).

MapMate
MapMate utilizes Virtual Earth and allows you to see where your friends are based on where they say they are, right down to street level! In order for this to work your friends, who also have Mapmate, will need to specify where they are. So no, it doesn’t use reverse IP or anything of that sort. How to specify your location: on the map navigate to where you are and right click on your location, a red pin with a pop up will then ask you if you wish to update your status. Click save and that’s it, all done..now your friends can find you! Don’t forget to update your location when you move again, else your friends might just turn up there and find you are not there anymore…. Beware of stalkers!

Aerobis, Train social
Another app that makes use of Virtual Earth, this time to organize and analyze your sport. With a route planner, a Sport-log and a Sport-Report. The sport profile uses the metric system (kilograms, centimeters), so that might take some calculation. An easy way to do this is to use an online converter such as Common Lenght and Distance Converter and Common Weight and Mass Converter. Even without the profile you can upload a route (KML or GPX) or create one by clicking on the map and have the application draw the route and calculate the distance for you. You can also allow others to see your routes and search routes that have been published by others. More info at the Aerobis web site.

StarFactor
Check your StarFactor. This Facebook Application created by Microsoft will tell you if you are you a Mr/Ms. Nobody or real star material! The more gossip you create on Live Search, the higher your score. Try to beat your friends, boost your buzz and enter the world of Glitz ’n Glam.

More read of interest:
Windows Live Messenger Developer Blog
Matt Augustine Tech Blog (Photozoom)
Virtual Earth Blog - Virtual Earth Applications on Facebook

For all previous LiveSide posts about these subjects and more, take a look at The List.

Have you noticed we are also on Facebook?

Edit: added StarFactor, thanks Kris Hoet for reminding me :)

Deep Zoom Composer Updated (Again!)

Sunshine — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 18:27:12 GMT

Just a few days after the last Deep Zoom Composer update, it got updated again. This to address many of the issues that arose with the previous version.

The Export tab has changed to make clear you need to create an account on PhotoZoom before you are able to upload via Deep Zoom Composer
Time-out for uploads has been increased

Before you install this new version you need to uninstall the previous one first!

If you are unsure if you have the latest version you can check by going to Help > About, make sure it says build date 3 August 2008.

Download Deep Zoom Composer

Should you still run into problems let the team know on their forum.

Deep Zoom Composer updated; now with photo stitching

Kip Kniskern — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 13:21:00 GMT

The Expression Blend and Design blog has announced an update to the Deep Zoom Composer, now available for download. In addition to bug fixes and performance improvements, the Deep Zoom Composer will now upload to PhotoZoom. Now you can store and serve Deep Zoom photo albums you create on PhotoZoom, or upload photos from the Deep Zoom Composer.

We’ve been telling you about Deep Zoom Composer and PhotoZoom, check out our posts for a quick refresher. You can also read more about Deep Zoom Composer in this User Guide.

The Deep Zoom Composer now also includes the same photo stitching technology from Microsoft Research that powers photo stitching in Windows Live Photo Gallery.