You probably know that various studies are conducted inside Microsoft. And sometimes something interesting comes out of them :)
Firstly, it is of course
Microsoft Research , which is engaged in scientific research. From their walls from recent projects came
F # and
Worldwide Telescope .
Secondly, it is
Live Labs , in which they develop various experimental projects - for example, the recently released
Photosynth and
Seadragon , which by the way is used in Photosynth itself, and
is the basis of DeepZoom technology in Silverlight 2.
')
But beyond that, Microsoft also has
Office Labs , in which they create various prototypes of interesting add-ons over Microsoft Office products. Having visited their website the day before (made by the way at Sharepoint), I discovered a very interesting project - pptPlex.
pptPlex is an add-on to PowerPoint, which allows you to make a slide show similar to how the technology works Deep Zoom in Silverlight. Thus, we have the opportunity to see the entire presentation as a whole, then increasing its various sections, including with complex graphs and diagrams. Something similar was
done by the Vertigo guys at the MIX08 conference, presenting a report on DeepZoom itself and its use on
the Hard Rock Cafe website .
On the pptPlex page there are a few instructional
videos that I recommend watching.