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Microsoft Unveils Street Slide Map UI

Posted by kdawson on from the how-it-ought-to-be dept.

theodp writes "For show-and-tell at SIGGRAPH 2010, Microsoft Research brought Street Slide, 'a multi-perspective street slide panorama with navigational aides and mini-map.' Very slick (demo video). Technology Review explains that Street Slide stitches together slices from multiple panoramas, making it possible to see all the shops on a street at once. Someone using Street Slide's panoramic view can slide along the facades looking for places of interest (perhaps guided by logos or ads at the bottom), and zoom back in to a classic Bing Streetside bubble view at any time."

7 of 80 comments (clear)

  1. Why don't they use Silverlight? by bogaboga · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I am surprised that folks at Microsoft have decided to employ Adobe's Flash other than their own Silverlight.

    You see, in the past, one would get a dialogue asking them to install Silverlight in order to see content. It makes me wonder whether Silverlight is slowly dying - at least in Microsoft's opinion. Remember the KIN ?

    1. Re:Why don't they use Silverlight? by PPalmgren · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Well, its win-win for them in this situation. Using flash kinda slights Apple, where Silverlight is proprietary lock-in.

    2. Re:Why don't they use Silverlight? by bogaboga · · Score: 4, Interesting

      That sounds reasonable but as indicated in my post, one would get a dialog advising a Silverlight install; in fact, Microsoft's 'modus operandi' in the past had been to 'force' an install or upgrade.

      These days, I see nothing pushing Silverlight at all!

  2. CSS Soda Can by Conspiracy_Of_Doves · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Reminds me of the CSS Soda Can that hit the charts a few months ago.

    --

    Technoli
  3. Extinguish the pedistrians and cars. by leuk_he · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Yes, Actually removing (content aware fill) of the cars and pedestrians out of those images would be a very good idea.

  4. Re:Holy crap! by FriendlyPrimate · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The rumor is that there's a reason for this. Cash-rich Microsoft supposedly employs some of the best and brightest software engineers on go-nowhere projects simply to keep them out of the available workforce. Since this talent doesn't end up in competing companies, this helps them maintain their monopoly position in their cash cows.

    Microsoft is not full of idiots. The saying may go "Don't explain anything by conspiracy that is more easily explained by stupidity.", but that doesn't mean the opposite isn't true every once in a while.

  5. Flickering multi-perspective scrolling by BorkBorkBork6000 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Did anyone else find the multi-perspective really annoying due to the flickering effect of constantly changing images when scrolling?

    I don't think having the perspective view really enhances our understanding of the scene. In reality, it's just going to increase the bandwidth necessary to run this app.

    It would be nice if there was an option, at least, to turn multi-perspective off and just see a blended mosaic of straight-on views.