Some Very Nice Free Software
Over the summer, I found a some new software you might be interested in. Best of all, it's free. There's more than I can put in one issue, so let me start in this issue by telling you of a very large collection of free stuff--- some of it very, very cool:
Most people have never heard of Microsoft's enormous R&D branch, called "Microsoft Research." But it's huge, with three labs in the US, one in Europe and another in Asia. I haven't seen a budget statement in a while, but at one time, Microsoft spent more money on software R&D than any other company in the world. I know, I know--- everyone likes to bash Microsoft, and it's an inviting target because when it screws up, it affects millions and millions of people. But it's not accidental that the Windows interface ("Start" button in the lower left, etc.) and specifically the XP interface is the most-copied UI design in the world. (It's the default interface, or at least an interface option, on virtually every Linux distribution, for example.) It's become the de facto standard interface in part because Microsoft made sure the design was relatively easy to learn and use through exhaustive research and testing.
Microsoft Research also explores new technologies and applications. Some of them don't pan out and thus never see the light of day. Others get built into working demos or lightweight tools for further experimentation. Some of those tools get polished enough to stand on their own as worthy downloads, and others go on to be incorporated as features in future releases of Windows or other Microsoft products. We've mentioned offerings from MR from time to time in the past in this newsletter, too.
You can read about Microsoft Research here http://research.microsoft.com/ and see the current list of downloads here http://research.microsoft.com/research/downloads/default.aspx . Some are pretty exotic and narrowly focused, but still can be interesting because it shows you some of the directions that Microsoft is actively exploring for future features and products.
But other downloads are widely useful as-is, and just plain cool as well. For example, Microsoft is exploring graphical interpolation. (In very casual speech, you can think of interpolation as figuring out what a third bit of data would be when you only have two other bits of data to work with. In other words, you figure out what the third bit of data is, even though you don't know it directly.)
If the above started to make your eyes glaze over, this will make it clearer:
Microsoft's "Continuous Flash" applet, for example, lets you start with two photos of the same scene--- one lit with a flash, one unlit with the flash--- and generate a third photo with any degree of lighting between the two real photos. In other words, with a dark non-flash shot and a bright full-flash shot of the same scene, Continuous Flash lets you synthesize a new digital image of that scene the way it would look with whatever intermediate degree of lighting you want--- 10% flash, or 50% flash, or 80% flash, or whatever makes it look best. That's pretty cool.
Even better is "Group Shot," which digitally solves the problem of getting everyone in a group photo to smile, look at the camera, and not blink. <g> Group Shot lets you build a new group photo using the best parts of other, flawed photos of the same group. Say your Aunt Bess looks goofy in one photo, but Uncle Bob is looking dapper. Aunt Bess looks radiant in a second shot, but Uncle Bob looks pole-axed. With Group Shot, you can synthesize a new third photo where both Aunt Bess and Uncle Bob are looking their best. Wow!
"Continuous Flash" is on the general download page, shown above, but that page doesn't list everything--- some offerings have their own pages, and you may have to poke around a bit to find them. "Group Shot," for example, is on its own page at http://research.microsoft.com/displayArticle.aspx?id=1481 .
There's lots to explore on the Research site; almost all of it at least interesting, if not immediately useful. And some of the tools, like the ones above, or "SNARF" (a tool that figures out your social network to help triage your email, with the most important peoples' emails rising to the top of the queue; http://research.microsoft.com/community/snarf/ ) are genuine "Wow" items.
And, because they're demos of research topics, they're all free!
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