Microsoft AutoCollage 2008 is a new desktop application which compiles individual photographs into one seamless collage. Using methods such as object recognition and face detection, Auto Collage combines the separate pictures into a composite collage by deliberately following natural features as a boundary between images. “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,” said Alisson Sol, development manager at Microsoft Research Cambridge. Microsoft AutoCollage runs on Windows Vista and Windows XP SP2 and above, and is available worldwide through a 30-day free trial.

Microsoft Research Press Release

CAMBRIDGE, UK - 4 Sept 2008 - Microsoft Research today launched AutoCollage 2008, a desktop application that allows users to easily compile a set of individual photographs into one seamless collage.

In just a few clicks, people can transform an unwieldy group of photos, for example, of an event like a wedding or holiday, into a single collage image that can be printed, used in e-postcards, web pages, desktop backgrounds, or emailed to family and friends.

Available to trial from the Microsoft Research download site, AutoCollage is an advanced computer vision and image processing program that assembles pictures into a seamless collage using methods such as object recognition and face detection. Having automatically identified interesting parts of pictures, AutoCollage combines the separate pictures into a composite collage by deliberately following natural features as a boundary between images.

“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,” said 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!”

There are three main criteria that AutoCollage considers to ensure that it chooses the best images to feature in the collages it creates:

- Choosing images that are most representative of the overall theme (eg. avoiding duplications, choosing people or groups of people)
- Laying out the images in an interesting way (eg. without one image overly dominating the collage, ensuring important parts of the photo are visible)
- Blending the images together so the joins aren’t visible

“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 runs on Windows Vista and Windows XP SP2 and above, and is available worldwide through a 30-day free trial.  An unrestricted version is available to purchase in the UK and US only at this time from http://research.microsoft.com/autocollage/Download.aspx

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