Today Microsoft Research has released a super-neat application that allows you to take a group of photos and easily create a collage within minutes - called AutoCollage 2008. AutoCollage 2008 is the result of research out of Microsoft Research Cambridge as well as research from other Microsoft Research Labs. The AutoCollage 2008 release marks the first incubation released directly to consumers from Cambridge's Microsoft Research Lab.

In AutoCollage 2008, I was able to pick a folder of photos that I took at this year's Microsoft Pro Photo Summit. Using the AutoCollage controls on the top right-hand side (under "Actions") I was able to choose the amount of images to include in the collage.

All I needed to do was hit "create" and within seconds I had a collage created! Larger collages could take a few minutes to create. Here is my collage of photos from the Microsoft Pro Photo Summit:

After creating the collage, I can choose to either email the collage or set as a desktop wallpaper directly in AutoCollage 2008.

I foresee lots of collages in my future!

AutoCollage 2008 is available here as a 30-day trial or available on the Windows Marketplace for $19.95 for US folks or here at the Microsoft Store for UK folks for £19.90. By charging for this application - this allows the Cambridge incubation team to dedicate significant amount of work to making it rock for consumers. And AutoCollage 2008 certainly rocks.

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: Deep Zoom Composer (8/1/2008 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.

RELATED: Look from the top of the Space Needle with Deep Zoom

Want to try out for yourself what made Robert Scoble cry? Tonight, Microsoft Research has made available the Spring Beta of WorldWide Telescope.

Download: WorldWide Telescope Spring Release

WorldWide Telescope is an application designed to turn your PC into a "virtual telescope" by stitching together terabytes (soon to be petabytes) of high-resolution images of the universe. Massive amounts of data are generated by the various scientific and research facilities and WorldWide Telescope brings the catalog of that data together for anyone to access using the power of the Internet. This new application is particularly exciting for me being someone really heavy into astronomy.  You can also use WorldWide Telescope and connect an ASCOM-capable Telescope to your PC to watch the night sky.  

WorldWide Telescope lets me connect to Communities, access Collections of celestial objects such as the Solar System or Constellations, or take Guides Tours.

Using my mouse, I can navigate the cosmos zooming in and out to any object in the rich catalog of celestial objects. I can right-click to access quick information on any celestial object.

I can use WorldWide Telescope for 4 different "looks" - Panorama, Sky, Earth, or Planets.  By default you are looking into the Sky when WorldWide Telescope but you can change the "look" in the lower left-hand corner of the application. You can view planets of the Solar System in 3D or view a panoramic shot as if you were standing on Mars (my favorite view so far!) taken from one of the NASA's Opportunity and Spirit rover missions.

I can also use WorldWide Telescope to browse the Earth using Virtual Earth.

WorldWide Telescope also lets you copy a view to your clipboard. In browsing the universe tonight with WorldWide Telescope I spotted several of these weird reflection-like images that I'm not entirely sure what they are:

Looks like a reflection from the telescope (or device) that took the image but I'm no expert.

By default, WorldWide Telescope is configured to view the night sky as if you were standing at Microsoft Building 99 in Redmond.  But you can change your Observing Location very easily via View options.

WorldWide Telescope observes the night sky in real-time (which is awesome) however there are controls that let you move backward or forward as well as pausing at any given moment.

There are so many features in WorldWide Telescope that it would be hard for me to go through them all tonight in this post. Give WorldWide Telescope a try yourself and let me know what you think. And if anyone has any suggestions for ASCOM-capable Telescopes I might go out and buy that might work with WorldWide Telescope - let me know!

The Ajax View JavaScript Instrumentation Proxy is the end result of the work from Microsoft Research. Essentially the tool is designed to act as a HTTP proxy focused on monitoring the performance and behavior of JavaScript applications within Internet Explorer 7, although Ajax View is not limited to just Microsoft’s browser. The Redmond company only recently delivered a public version of Ajax View under an academic and non-commercial use license.

“Ajax View is an HTTP proxy that instruments JavaScript as it’s served to the client based on a set of rules defined by plug-ins. The download includes a plug-in that contains a commented sample instrumentation policy. This design has a couple important effects. [First off] you can customize Ajax View to monitor exactly the JavaScript behavior you’re looking for, whether it’s about performance, or how people navigate through your site. And using Ajax View does not require modification of either the page source or the browser,” explained John Hrvatin, Program Manager, Internet Explorer. (more…)

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