Microsoft Research's Vision of Street "Slide" is Awesome

While Google Maps has become the de-facto online mapping service for address searching and driving directions, its Street View feature is arguably underutilized--especially considering how much resources go into producing Street View panoramas. I find myself using Street View when I want to take a peek at an address I'm about to visit, zooming in for a photographic glimpse and then zooming back out, never exploring location outside of the 360 degree panoramic bubble.

Microsoft Research wants to change that. At this year's SIGGRAPH conference, Redmond researchers presented a paper showing their vision for the future of Streetside (Bing's version of Google Street View). Called Street Slide, this system aggregates all the photos from 360 degree bubbles and stitches neighboring images into long panoramas. The full stretch of road along one street becomes one long image that you can now pan across, so you're not limited to one fixed perspective. Of course, you'll be able to zoom into individual positions to get the traditional 360 degree view, but the ability to zoom out and scan one stretch of street offers a level of freedom that makes exploration enjoyable and useful. You really have to watch the demo video to get a sense for how intuitive this system really is.

Street Slide seems to be a logical implementation of Microsoft's Seadragon technology they're already using in Bing Maps Beta, along with an extension of its Photosynth collaborative geo-tagging photo project. It's great to see innovation coming from Microsoft's camp that's more than just visual gimmicks; hopefully Street Slide will get the opportunity to move beyond the research paper domain and actually turn into a Bing feature.

Watch the video demo of Street Slide below.

How To Rip DVDs to Play on Any Device—For Free! Our ultimate DVD copying guide shows you how to use Handbrake to rip discs for playback on your laptop, Xbox, PS3, iPhone, Zune, netbook, iPad, PSP, iPod, and pretty much anything else
Video: How To Build the Best $1500 Gaming PC, Step-by-Step Do you like saving money? What about playing PC games? Have you ever considered building your own PC? We show you exactly what you need to know to build an awesome $1500 gaming PC.
How To Build an Awesome $500 Windows Home Server We pick the best parts to build a lean media backup and streaming machine.
Apple iPad Wi-Fi Review Apple's device isn't magical, but it is going to make the tablet a real category--for better or for worse
Nexus One vs HTC Desire vs HTC Incredible: What's the Difference? HTC is releasing more Android phones all the time, but is there a difference?
How To Steal Mac OS's Best Features for Windows Windows 7's Aero is a fine UI, but there are just a few things it's missing. Here's how to steal some of Mac OS's features.
How To Rip a Blu-Ray Movie with Just One Click The MakeMKV utility decrypts and rips a Blu-Ray disc with just one click, preserving the original video quality of the source file.
How To Stream All of Your Video Files to iPhone and iPad Get your DVD rips off your computer and play them on a mobile device, without having to convert them beforehand.

Apple Fall Event 2010 Discussion Thread: iPods and AppleTV Discuss Apple's Fall Event announcements here!
What Are You Playing This Weekend? The weekend's upon us, and like any good nerds, we're spending the last days of summer holed up in our houses playing board and video games. What are you playing this weekend?
iPod Nano 6G vs 5G: Everything You Need to Know The iPod nano is ready to go running. Are you?
Your Shiny New Xbox 360 Controller is Already Outdated Transforming d-pad makes it more than just a cosmetic update.
Everything You Should Know about Apple's New iPod Touch All views expressed in this deck are the sole property of the internet rumor machine.
Why the Obama Administration's Stance on Piracy Sidesteps Complicated Issues Addressing an audience of workers in the music industry, Commerce Secretary Gary Locke reaffirmed the Obama administration's commitment to cracking down on media piracy on the Internet.
Living with Technology: Two Mice for One Desktop PC What would drive a man to use two mice for one computer?
Android Market Roundup: 5 Apps to Put a Smile on Your Phone It's the weekly Android Market Roundup.

Apple Fall Event 2010 Discussion Thread: iPods and AppleTV Discuss Apple's Fall Event announcements here!
What Are You Playing This Weekend? The weekend's upon us, and like any good nerds, we're spending the last days of summer holed up in our houses playing board and video games. What are you playing this weekend?
Your Shiny New Xbox 360 Controller is Already Outdated Transforming d-pad makes it more than just a cosmetic update.
Never Give Up: Microsoft May Be Working on One More Zune Just in time for Apple's new iPod Touch announcement, a rumor is brewing indicating that Microsoft is going to give the Zune another go.
Why the Obama Administration's Stance on Piracy Sidesteps Complicated Issues Addressing an audience of workers in the music industry, Commerce Secretary Gary Locke reaffirmed the Obama administration's commitment to cracking down on media piracy on the Internet.
The New AppleTV: $99, No Apps, All About Streaming The original AppleTV was a device with an identity crisis. The latest update aims to fix that, and a whole lot more.
Living with Technology: Two Mice for One Desktop PC What would drive a man to use two mice for one computer?
Everything You Should Know about Apple's New iPod Touch All views expressed in this deck are the sole property of the internet rumor machine.

simian This is not the Android Tablet You Are Looking For.
Forte A list of (future) complaints about the new iPods
fox01313 first blog post
Forte I would pay for OnLive if...
sorryawkward Making A Hack Pro Journal: 1st Entry
Scotty_Gun The Trials of Linux: LAMP Server with Ubuntu
lane I never realized how limited the iPhone was on 3G...
zyn Windows 7
brianmcdon College starts soon.
Forte College Students: Free Stuff Awaits You