14 DAY TRIAL // AutoCollage 2008 is a project developed by Microsoft Research Cambridge and made available for download as of September 4, 2008. The tool is no longer just a research prototype, as it has been made available for purchase via the Microsoft Store (UK) and the Windows Marketplace (US).
At the same time, Microsoft Research Cambridge is offering end users a taste of AutoCollage 2008 via a 30-day downloadable trial version. Designed to enable end users to put together collages of digital photo collections, AutoCollage 2008 is in fact the first example of an incubation project offered to the general public by Microsoft Research Cambridge.
"The most significant feature that differentiates AutoCollage is that it offers exceptionally sophisticated blending technology for photographs, powered by state-of-the-art computer vision techniques," explained Alisson Sol, development manager at Microsoft Research Cambridge. "It’s great that we can give everyone the opportunity to play with and use this compelling technology, and we’re looking forward to seeing what collages they come up with."
According to Microsoft, AutoCollage 2008 does much more than simply blending images into a collage. The tool builds a seamless canvas using the photographs made available while avoiding duplicates and ensuring that no one image comes into focus all by itself. The Redmond company indicated that AutoCollage started along back in 2005 in Microsoft Research Cambridge, UK, in 2005, after which it was moved to the Cambridge Incubation team. Microsoft researchers from China and Redmond collaborated with the Cambridge team on the development process. AutoCollage 2008 is designed to integrate seamlessly with Windows Vista Service Pack 1 and Windows XP Service Pack 3.
"We’ve tested tens of thousands of different collages in the course of our research, and it’s really exciting that the positive feedback we’ve received from our user studies shows we’ve answered these challenges successfully," said Carsten Rother, researcher in the Computer Vision Group at Microsoft Research Cambridge.
AutoCollage 2008 is available for download here.