back to article Microsoft fixes all those shaky GoPro vids nobody wants to watch

Shaky GoPro videos are the new post-holiday family slide nights: just as seeing an Uncle's slides of their most recent journey is tedious, helmet-cam footage of your rellies hurtling down a hillside on a mountain bike is evocative for those who’ve done it, but contextless and dizzying for anyone else. Enter Microsoft, perhaps …

  1. Paul Crawford Silver badge

    "working to bring Hyperlapse into a Windows app some time soon"

    That is MS' underlying problem these days, they still see the world as:

    "Windows on x86 is the answer, now what was your question?"

    They would be far better to separate applications from being Windows-only to supporting what is out there on all platforms. Its not like they don't have the resources to do cross-platform development, is it?

    Edited to add: Good work nevertheless, makes such videos watchable!

    1. Anonymous Coward
      WTF?

      Re: "working to bring Hyperlapse into a Windows app some time soon"

      "They would be far better to separate applications from being Windows-only"

      What say something like Office on a Mac?

      Lync on Android?

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: "working to bring Hyperlapse into a Windows app some time soon"

      I have the feeling that this sort of program requires a lot more CPU than an Arm processor to get decent throughout. I don't see it running on a phone, which is severely power constrained, any time soon. And I can see why Microsoft would want to keep something like this for Windows, as it will make Mac users deeply envious. I am no fan of the Borg, but if they actually pay people to do some really significant computer science development that isn't just a rounded corner or a slide to unlock, I have no problem at all with their using it how they wish. And the same for Apple, if they do something equally good.

      I am assuming that the output will run on just about anything, because it's going to be a video file. So, not a USP for Windows phone, but for some people a reason to keep their Windows desktop.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: "working to bring Hyperlapse into a Windows app some time soon"

        "I am no fan of the Borg"

        What have Google got to do with it?

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: "working to bring Hyperlapse into a Windows app some time soon"

      "Windows on x86 is the answer, now what was your question?"

      Also, I think in this instance: Here is something cool our geeks have been playing with - can you think of a use for it?

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    nice results

    Great work by MS - if you watch the video in the link, you can see what they have done is pretty impressive. I have plenty of crap video footage that could be made watchable using this tech. If I were MS and I developed this, I too would want it only on a Windows phone/platform as it could provide a nice unique selling point. Means of course, given that I am an Apple fan-boy, I won't get to benefit from this as I have no intention of buying a windows phone, though admittedly if I were going to change, I would probably try MS before I try (again) Android.

    1. Omniaural

      Re: nice results

      Hyperlapse would be a great reason to seriously consider a winphone, but not necessarily for your extreme sports activities, more like those drunken nights out where you find a video on your phone the next day of something that may have been funny or interesting if you could have held the camera straight.

    2. Cliff

      Re: nice results

      As an ex-M'oftie I saw some of the stuff their research people were doing, damn it's good. This is the cutting edge research we won't even realise we're all using in a few years, I love it.

  3. frank ly

    Very impressive results

    I'm wondering how long it would take the average laptop to process a video in this way.

    The linked video was a very good and detailed (if rapid) overview of the techniques used. Why oh why did they have to add loud modern/hip music at the end of it? (I'm a grumpy old curmudgeon, I know.)

    1. This post has been deleted by its author

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Very impressive results

      "I'm wondering how long it would take the average laptop to process a video in this way."

      That probably depends on how fast a connection it has to Azure.....

  4. Blitterbug
    Happy

    Wow!

    ...about sums it up.

    "...working to bring Hyperlapse into a Windows app some time soon"... Almost makes apps in Windows desirable. Ech - forget I said that! It was just a momentary lapse, honest, guv.

  5. Longrod_von_Hugendong
    Thumb Up

    Something...

    Actually worth having from Microsoft. Hats off to you, that is truly awesome. We need more stuff like this.

  6. John Robson Silver badge

    Wow...

    This, alongside that new map stitching, is a real "value add" service, which would be well provided with on a server... (cloud if you must)

  7. poopypants

    They didn't mention how much computing power was involved, but I imagine it wasn't trivial.

    If NVIDIA could do something similar it might provide enough excuse to buy a GTX TITAN Black.

    I imagine it could handle something like that with relative ease.

  8. hitmouse

    Yawn powerpoint diss

    Should we blame the creators of the word-processor, typewriter and pen for inflicting hackneyed prose on the world?

    There were a billion somnolence-inducing presentations from lecturns, recited from over-head projectors, and beamed from earlier presentation software before Microsoft purchased the pre-existing Presenter software.and renamed it PowerPoint.

    1. Arctic fox

      @hitmouse Re: "Yawn powerpoint diss"

      "Should we blame the creators of the word-processor, typewriter and pen for inflicting hackneyed prose on the world?"

      Agreed. I have sat through far too many despair-inducing presentations where the issue was the utter incompetence of the one who had constructed the presentation rather than which software package he/she had used to be in any doubt that. When it comes to that kind of thing the old saw "rubbish in, rubbish out" applies. Bluntly put, a significant number of people are absolute rubbish at creating and delivering presentations.

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Microsoft haters

    There's always negativity regarding Microsoft, even when they're trying so desperately like this to make their failed platform relevant to people. They're not used to creating technically innovative products, because they've never been in a situation where they had to.

    Give the underdog a chance!

  10. Andy Roid McUser

    This is awesome

    Some proper mathematics and computer science stuff going on there and it is to be applauded. We need more of this kind of thing rather than the 'where's my taxi' and lifestyle apps.

    Love it - there is hope for the future.

  11. Spacedman
    Holmes

    Hours...

    Their SIGGRAPH paper gives some timings, and it does take hours (and these guys had access to clusters) for a few minutes of video. Not going to happen on your phone any time soon, except maybe as a service.

    1. Stuart Castle Silver badge

      Re: Hours...

      Maybe not soon, but technology advances and they have the algorithm now, so I don't doubt they'll be optimising it as much as they can. Combine that with the fact that computing power is increasing exponentially. I daresay the phones available in a decade will have near enough CPU power for this..

      1. jason 7

        Re: Hours...

        Plus I guess you'll be able to apply degrees of the algorithm which may require less number crunching. Basically turn it from jerky cam to slightly less jerky cam.

  12. Szymon Kosecki

    Finally something innovative from the MS stable... probably will be too cpu/time intensive for the phones but neat idea nonetheless

  13. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Raw footage

    Pah, they haven't seen the motion-sickness-inducing raw video footage that one of my brothers-in-law has made.

    Anonymous: he is a great guy but has no idea how to use a video camera.

  14. Rikkeh

    Something worth buying a new computer for?

    Part of the decline in PC sales can be blamed on the lack of things that the average user actually *wants* their computer to do, that can instead be done on a tablet or an older PC.

    If you want to web browse, watch streaming video services, type up a couple of letters and organise your photos, then you're good to go with a 5 year old PC. Why would you ever upgrade? You can see why this would be a nightmare for Microsoft (and you can see that with some of there "I bought a PC because I changed my mind on my need for an upgrade" adverts).

    I imagine that we'll start seeing a lot of these kinds of high demand/domestic application services being developed by Microsoft in future, in order to try and persuade people to get back on the upgrade conveyor.

  15. J__M__M

    They did it exactly how I would have done it.

  16. e^iπ+1=0

    POV porn

    I see this technology taking off big time if the porn industry were to back it. At the moment a lot of POV stuff just looks a bit "jerky".

    1. Sandtitz Silver badge
      Thumb Up

      Re: POV porn

      Forget porn.

      This could have made Elysium and Cloverfield much more enjoyable, perhaps I could have even liked NYPD Blue back then as each episode would have been over in 5 minutes...

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: POV porn

      ... looks a bit "jerky".

      jerky-offy?

  17. Stu 18

    Dr Stu's school for the gifted

    Right-O, everyone got that?

    Your assignment is to develop an app for that to be handed in on Friday by 4pm

    And no double swish finger this time, we all know what happened to Gavin.

  18. dijital

    Doesn't YouTube already do this?

    Didn't Google announce this functionality a while back:

    http://googleresearch.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/video-stabilization-on-youtube.html

  19. CaptainBanjax

    Marketing

    Should have called it pro-lapse.

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