by asli
4. February 2010 02:03
Although most of you may know my former teammate Sam Chenaur for his role as the acclaimed Policeman #2, he is actually now better known for his role on Nike’s Cloud Computing effort - the Mosaic 23/25 project- a poster child for social networked media – and a shining example of how a company can take branding to the next level – by building a tribe of fansumers around a powerful brand such as Nike. Windows Azure and Silverlight provides a level of dynamic interactivity between a company and its fans, creating site stickiness - (e.g. how long a user stays on a page, and how often the user comes back to visit).
The Moasic 23/25 project leverages Silverlight’s DeepZoom technology to build a giga-mosaic using photos submitted by fans. Once the photo is uploaded, Azure runs a computation in the cloud to calculate where to best place the photo as a micro-image to form the mosaic pattern of Michael Jordan catching air. Fans can then click on the Michael Jordan image and keep zooming, zooming, zooming until they drill deep into their very own uploaded photo.
Is your photo wrapped around Michael Jordan’s waist?
At 713% you can still see the pick out the image of Michael Jordan’s waistband while beginning to make out the individual photos that comprise the colors.
Send a Secret Valentine Using Windows Azure
Just in time for Valentine’s Day, Windows Azure is ready to play Cupid! At 6000% we can see a lovely couple in love (naturally they are from France), along with a rating of the photo and their favorite shoe.
With Azure Cloud computations running constantly in the background, the mosaic is ever changing, so the steps to zooming into this picture will change. You can search for this photo using the metadata – for example: type in Aeight to the search box and see that it constantly keeps moving throughout the main image. I like the idea of embedding a secret message into Michael Jordan using your personal photos as Easter Eggs- you can create a scavenger hunt for a loved one! Now imagine if this photo had a little sign that said “Marry me?” Maybe we will see that demo’ed at Mix10? Gives a whole ‘nother meaning to being on Cloud 9.
Another usage of Silverlight’s Deep Zoom technology was showcased 2 years ago on the Hard Rock site, which highlights a memorabilia collection of over 70,000 items – including guitars played by U2 and Jimi Hendrix to the Beatle's tour bus. At Mix08, the Silverlight demo zoomed into a photograph of a guitar and kept zooming until it showed the fingerprint of Bo Diddley on the guitar casing. Walk through the steps to see the fingerprint yourself
And that was 2 versions ago – stayed tuned to see what Silverlight 4 has to offer – expect amazing demos during Mix10 in Las Vegas March 15-17 2010 - register by Feb 7 to save money on your pass.
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