Nic Fillingham

ShutterSpeed EP04 - The Photosynth Team

Nic — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 18:00:00 GMT

By now most of you have probably heard of Photosynth. The cool new technology from Microsoft that allows you to explore collections of full resolution photos by relationship in an amazing, interactive 3D space.

From today (9PM PST) Photosynth is being released to the public which means anyone with access to a digital camera, PC and internet connection can create their own Photosynth collections. Just visit photosynth.net, download the app (approx 8MB) and start synthing.

To coincide with the release of Photosynth to the masses we thought it might be fun to sit down with 1/5th of the development team behind the technology to learn some more about how Photosynth works and how best to go about creating collections of photos specifically for synthing.

Joining me for this episode of ShutterSpeed is Live Labs and Photosynth Architect Blaise Aguera y Arcas (who you might recognize from this infamous TED presentation), Scientist Drew Steedley and Program Manager Scott Fynn.

Check out Max's interview with Rick Szeliski and Noah Snavely over on Channel 8 for more on the genesis (and genius!) of Photosynth. And for those of you about to grab your camera and go shoot some photos for a little synth action make sure you first watch Laura's how-to-synth video for tips and tricks.

PPS08: Icon's of Imaging Panel 01

Nic — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 18:01:00 GMT

The Microsoft Icons of Imaging is an exclusive group of (thirteen) industry leading photographers and digital imaging experts whose workflow is based within the Windows environment.

At the 2008 Pro Photo Summit we brought the Icon's together for a series of mini-panels and asked what was the biggest trend that they witnessed in the photography industry over the past five years and what trends they see continuing, emerging, evolving or declining in the next five.

Their answers may surprise you.

In this first panel is Jerry Ghionis, Bambi Cantrell and Matthew Jordan Smith.

Live Labs Shadow Box on the Surface

Nic — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 13:57:00 GMT

Now this is cool. Jeff Weir and John Lynn work in the Microsoft Live Labs team (that's the group that created Photosynth). They also have a couple of Surface units in their office. So the two of them came up with an idea to build a little application called Shadow Box (or unofficially "nightmare box") that 'burns' in and out images of what the infrared camera inside the surface sees. The end result is both awesome and spooky! Check out the video of Shadow Box in action.

More on Live Labs: http://labs.live.com/

Pro Photo Summit 08: Lou Lesko on Photography Piracy

Nic — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 21:18:00 GMT

Photographer Lou Lesko's presentation at the 2008 Pro Photo Summit was titled 'Let the photo pirates have their way: the advantages of not worrying about image-theft and actually giving some of your images away'.
A somewhat controversial subject, Lou's argument is that allowing your photos to be used without permission, but with attribution, can be beneficial in the long term.

Microsoft Future Pro Photographer Competition Winners

Nic — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 19:04:00 GMT

For the past three years the Microsoft Future Pro Photographer Competition has been held in conjunction with the annual Microsoft Pro Photo Summit to find talented up and coming student photographers from around the world.

This years winners - Arjan Koetsier, Whitney Dafoe, Colin Miller, and Ed Salter, along with Jeff Greene from Microsoft - talk to me about the competition and their winning entries.

More: http://blogs.msdn.com/prophoto/archive/2008/07/09/microsoft-pro-photo-summit-2.aspx

Games For Windows LIVE is Now FREE

Nic — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 21:11:00 GMT

Kevin over at Gamerscore Blog has the details:

I love getting achievements when I play games. I love having the same friends list shared between my PC games and my XBOX 360. And I love not having to pick games from a list of servers, but just having matchmaking that puts me into a game. And today, we made some announcements that are going to make that much more common in Windows games... Games for Windows – LIVE – our online multiplayer gaming service for Windows, now offers completely free multiplayer. No exceptions – multiplayer is completely free, even cross-platform gameplay with XBOX 360 users.

Full post: http://gamerscoreblog.com/team/archive/2008/07/22/560107.aspx

More info: http://www.gamesforwindows.com/live

Make Money with Xbox Live Community Games

Nic — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 14:19:00 GMT

Turn your XNA projects into cash with Xbox Live Community Games.

Coming holiday 2008, Xbox Live Community Games will give XNA game developers (that's YOU!) the opportunity to publish and sell their projects to millions of gamers worldwide via the Xbox Live Marketplace.

Here's how it works. XNA game developers (again that's YOU!) submit their titles to http://creators.xna.com for peer review. Once approved the games are then made available for sale on Xbox Live Marketplace for a price point that you set (between 200 and 800 points). You then receive up to 70% of the games total revenue!

So let's say you create a game that you sell for 200 points (which is approx USD$2.50). The game is then purchased 10,000 times. That's $25,000 in total revenue of which you stand a chance to receive up to 70% or $17,500!!! WOW!!

More info: http://blogs.msdn.com/xna/ & http://creators.xna.com/

Press Release

Join the Community: Make Games, Make Money on Xbox LIVE

You’ve played Xbox 360 games with the millions of gamers on Xbox LIVE. You’ve chatted, shared, and dominated in games of all kinds. But what if those millions could be playing your game?

Better still – what if you were getting paid for it?

Starting holiday 08, Xbox LIVE Community Games is your ticket to fame – and possibly fortune as millions of Xbox LIVE users now have the opportunity to view, buy, and play games that you create.

How it Works

The setup? Simple. The payments? Cash.

As a Premium member in the XNA Creators Club, you’ll be able to submit any complete Xbox 360 game you’ve created in XNA Game Studio to the Creators Club community at http://creators.xna.com/, for peer review. Other Premium Creators will check to make sure your game is safe to play. If it is, you’ll set a price point – between 200 and 800 Points – that people will pay to download your game.

Once the game is reviewed and the price point set, you’re done. The game is listed on Xbox LIVE Marketplace, and you’ll get a check every quarter, for up to 70% of the game’s total revenue in your own currency. Depending on your game’s success, you may even have your game advertised on Xbox 360 and other Microsoft online properties.

Just imagine - your game in the hands of millions of Xbox 360 gamers around the world: that’s the power of Community Games.

How to Get Started

While the official launch of Xbox LIVE Community Games won’t be until later this year, you can start working on that great game right now with XNA Game Studio and the XNA Creators Club Online community!

First, download XNA Game Studio, the free game development tool from Microsoft. It’s free and works with Visual Studio or Visual C# Express Edition. If you’ve never made a game before, the XNA Creators Club website has tons of samples, tutorials, even whole video guides to game creation. Jump right in and start coding your dream game!

Next, join the XNA Creator’s Club at http://creators.xna.com/. It’s a community of game creators just like you. If you’re going to develop games for Xbox 360 and want to sell your game on Xbox LIVE Community Games, you’ll need a Premium membership. It’s just $99 per year or $49 for four months.

Finally, submit your finished game to the XNA Creators Club and watch the money roll in!

Windows Home Server Power Pack 1 RTM

Nic — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 17:51:00 GMT

Windows Home Server Power Pack 1 has been released to manufacuring and is available NOW for your downloading pleasure via the Microsoft Download Center.

Power Pack 1 includes a bunch of new features, enhancements and bug fixes:
- Support for Windows Vista 64 bit
- Home Server Shared Folder backup
- Improved remote access experience
- Improvements to power consumption and performance
- Localization support for Japan and China
- Data corruption bug fixes

More info here & here. Get the bits here

ShutterSpeed Episode 03 - Art Wolfe

Nic — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 21:21:00 GMT

Art Wolfe is one of the worlds best known wildlife and nature photographers whose career spans more than 30 years. From Africa to Antarctica, Art has travelled the globe capturing breathtaking images of flaura and fauna, people and places and everything in between.

Art was gracious enough to give me a tour of his Seattle Washington gallery and divulge a few of the secrets behind some of the beautiful, iconic images hanging on his gallery walls.

00:00-12:46 One-on-one with Art Wolfe
12:47-22:15 Art's favourite photos
22:16-32:10 Tour of the gallery and archives

Catch more of Art on Travel's to the Edge with Art Wolfe, the Microsoft Icon's of Imaging web site and www.artwolfe.com

Pro Photo Summit 2008: David Vaskevitch Microsoft CTO

Nic — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 20:14:00 GMT

David Vaskevitch, Microsoft Chief Technology Officer, gave the opening key note address at the 2008 Pro Photo Summit last week. Afterwards David was kind enough to sit down with me to talk about the role of photography and imaging in the computing and technology industries as well as some of the biggest trends he's seen in the last few years and what we can expect to see in the near future.

Meet the Microsoft Surface Team

Nic — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 19:00:00 GMT

Ever wondered what it would be like to work on the Microsoft Surface team?

Exciting? Innovative? Fun!? You bet,...!

Actually,... I wonder if they have any roles open,.... :)

More: www.surface.com

What are Windows Live Agents?

Nic — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 12:19:00 GMT

Or perhaps WHO are these Windows Live Agents I keep hearing about?

Glen Allison from the Windows Live Agents team in Silicon Valley answers this question for me and talks about how you can go about creating your very own automated chat-bot.

More info:
Windows Live Agents: http://agents.live.com/
SDK Info: http://dev.live.com/agents/
Team Blog: http://windowsliveagents.spaces.live.com/

List of Windows Live Agents on WL Gallery

Blogger Back Channel Event: World Wide Telescope - AM Session

Nic — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 14:06:00 GMT

Recorded LIVE

On Tuesday (June 17 2008) a small group of bloggers from across the globe were invited to participate in an online, interactive discussion with Curtis Wong and Jonathan Fay; the gentlemen behind World Wide Telescope.

Along with Ambika Singh from the Microsoft team here in Redmond, we placed Curtis and Jonathan in the Channel 10 studios and streamed them live to the web via Ustream with a web chat system powered by Windows Live Translator where they fielded questions about and provided demos of World Wide Telescope.

We recorded two sessions to accommodate for global time zones. Here is the AM session recording for bloggers from Western Europe and the America's.

PM session available here

Blogger Back Channel Event: World Wide Telescope

Nic — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 16:49:00 GMT

We recorded two sessions to accommodate for global time zones. Here is the PM session recording for bloggers from Eastern Europe and Asia Pacific.

AM session available here

ShutterSpeed Episode 02

Nic — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 17:31:00 GMT

Welcome to ShutterSpeed Episode 02

My guests in the studio: Michael Palermiti, Bill Crow & Jeff Greene.

Links mentioned and topics covered in this episode:
[01:29] Photosynth on CSI: New York (YT Clip)
[05:22] Top 100 Iconic Photo Locations of the World - Contest
[09:46] Microsoft Pro Photo Tools with Geotagging (free download)
[16:56] What is Metadata and why is it important for photography?
[17:50] Hands-On: Using (the free) Windows Live Photo Gallery to import digital photos directly from the camera, add tags and look at basic automatic adjustment options such as brightness, contrast, saturation, red eye removal, curves and cropping.
[38:15] The first photo Bill Crow ever took; an early example of metadata from the 60's

On the next episode of ShutterSpeed Art Wolfe gives us a tour of his Seattle gallery and talks about the stories and technical challenges behind some of his favourite photos. Stay tuned.

Feedback? Comments? Suggestions? Please let us know via the comments section below or email Kyle Warnick from the Microsoft Surface team was in Las Vegas yesterday for the launch of the Rio iBar Surface units.
Kyle and team had their video camera with them and filmed this great demo of the new Surface apps in action for Channel 10.
Apart from fun, multiplayer mini-games and informational applications Harrah's have created a unique Surface experience by incorporating video camera's in the ceiling of the bar that allow you to (amongst other things) experiment with social interaction and the ordering of adult beverages,.. what a mix!
More info: www.surface.com & the Surface team blog

Microsoft Surface at the Rio in Las Vegas; Your Virtual Wingman

Nic — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 16:52:00 GMT

Harrah’s Entertainment and Microsoft are unveiling a new interactive entertainment experience with the deployment of six Microsoft Surface units at the iBar in Las Vegas’ Rio Hotel and Casino.

Guests in the iBar will be able to play games, order customized drinks for themselves (or that special someone across the room) and send photos and messages to each other via strategically placed video cameras that can be controlled by the Surface units.

The iBar Microsoft Surface units will feature eight brand new interactive applications:

• Flirt Vegas style by adding a hip ultralounge vibe to the flirting experience. This application allows guests to create an exciting new way to chat and meet people from one Surface to another. Strategically placed video cameras at each Surface add even more energy to the action, allowing guests to interact with old friends, flirt with new acquaintances, and take and send photos across the lounge.

• Mixologists are inspired to create and order their own signature cocktails for themselves or to send to that special someone across the room using Surface and Harrah’s intuitive food and beverage application.

• Hip-notic describes how guests will feel when kicking back to find and view the latest and most popular online videos with their friends on Surface.

• Head Games are taken to a whole new level with Harrah’s creative suite of play-for-fun games. With the unique Surface interface, Harrah’s adds an exciting new take on some old favorites such as High Roller bowling, Dissed multiplayer pickup pinball, and a Last Call musical memory game that encourage the whole group to play together. Leaderboards add excitement as guests compete with one another to see who can climb to the top of the scoreboard. In addition to Harrah’s unique applications and play-for-fun games, the Surface units also feature a photos application and a virtual concierge application developed by Microsoft that Harrah’s customized for its environment.

• See and Be Scene is what guests can do as they tour all of Harrah’s Vegas properties and explore attractions in Vegas without leaving their seat at the iBar.

• Virtual Vegas aptly describes how guests will take a virtual walk down the Las Vegas strip on Surface, letting their fingers be the guide. Guests will be able to get information on the latest events and attractions at all Harrah’s properties throughout Vegas.

Silverlight Mobile with John L Scott Real Estate

Nic — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 20:14:00 GMT

Lennox Scott, Chairman and CEO of John L. Scott Real Estate and Sam Chenaur, Microsoft Platform Strategy Advisor, join me in the studio to talk about Silverlight on the mobile device and it's application in the Real Estate industry.

Sam walks us though a proof of concept (POC) Silverlight mobile app for John L. Scott Real Estate developed by Microsoft partner, Dr. Neil Roodyn, with the assistance of Loke Uei Tan from the Windows Mobile group.

Phil Torrone Explains the Giant Cupcakes

Nic — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 15:28:00 GMT

Never been to Maker Faire but wondering what all the fuss is/was about?
We challenged Phil Torrone, Senior Editor at Makezine.com, to sum up Maker Faire in 3 minutes and 51 seconds.
Did he succeed!? Check the video.

The Babbage Difference Engine

Nic — Fri, 23 May 2008 17:05:00 GMT

Back in the early 1800’s an English chap by the name of Charles Babbage started toying with the idea of machines that could calculate complex mathematical tables to eliminate the possibility of human error when performing these calculations by hand.

Babbage drew up plans for such a device – the Difference Engine - but never got around to actually building one.

In 1991 the London Science Museum completed a replica of Babbage’s Difference Engine to celebrate the 200 year anniversary of his birth. In 2000 they also built the printer (yes a printer) he designed to complete the project.

Tim Robinson from the Computer History Museum in Mountain View California built his own, fully functional, version of the Babbage Difference Engine out of Meccano which he had on display at Maker Faire this year to help promote the museum's Babbage Engine Exhibit which is open now.