Welcome to Deep Zoom Composer

Welcome to Deep Zoom Composer

[This topic is pre-release documentation and is subject to change in a future release. Blank topics are included as placeholders.]

With Deep Zoom Composer, you can take a collection of images of various resolutions (including large, high-resolution images) and arrange them into a composition. You can then export or publish the composition as either a single high-resolution image or a set of individual images with different resolutions. Once you export or publish your composition, you can use a standard broadband connection to quickly display and navigate a large, detailed image or a panorama of images that might otherwise be extremely slow to view.

What is Deep Zoom Composer used for?

There are many things you can do with Deep Zoom Composer, from artistic applications, such as complex photo mosaics, to business applications, such as photo galleries for real estate sites. Here are just a few potential uses:

· Mapping

· Photo galleries

· Online banner ads

· High-resolution photos

· Visual catalogs

· 3D photography

You can also use Deep Zoom Composer to share photo albums online by using the PhotoZoom service.

For more Deep Zoom e How does the Deep Zoom technology work?

Deep Zoom Composer uses the Deep Zoom technology found in Microsoft Silverlight 2 and Seadragon Ajax. When you view an image created in Deep Zoom Composer in a browser, the browser downloads only the portion of the image that you are actually viewing on your screen at that time, and at a resolution appropriate to the scale of the image. Downloading only part of the image data at a time decreases the time it takes to load the image and optimizes the viewing experience.

For more information about Silverlight 2 and Seadragon Ajax, see Exporting a composition.

xamples online, see Seadragon Ajax on Microsoft Live Labs.

Blurry-to-crisp loading

When you first view a Deep Zoom image, your browser displays a scaled-up version of a low-resolution version of the image, and then blends in higher-resolution images as they are downloaded. This is the reason for the blurry-to-crisp experience when you view an image created in Deep Zoom Composer. It is also the reason that the Deep Zoom images open quickly regardless of the file size of the image. The blurry-to-crisp behavior that you see during loading also occurs when you interact with the Deep Zoom image (for example, zooming or panning the image), and it enables you to smoothly pan and zoom a Deep Zoom image the way you would an online map, such as Microsoft Live Earth.

Blurry-to-crisp loading

Image pyramids and tiles

Each image in a Deep Zoom Composer composition is partitioned (or sliced up) into tiles. During the tiling process, Deep Zoom Composer creates an image pyramid of various resolutions. An image pyramid has the highest-resolution image, composed of multiple tiles, at the base of the pyramid, and the lowest-resolution image at the top of the pyramid, as a single tile. In Deep Zoom Composer, each tile at each level in the pyramid is 256x256 pixels. This tiling process happens at design time as part of the Deep Zoom Composer exporting process.

At run time (when you are viewing the image in a browser), one of the lower-resolution image tiles loads first to decrease wait time and download size so you can see the image as quickly as possible, instead of waiting for the entire image to load. As you pan and zoom the image, other pieces of image data are loaded as needed. For example, if you zoom in to see only the highlighted middle part of the image, your browser loads only the highlighted tiles, rather than the higher-resolution tiles of the entire image.

Image pyramid

Getting Started with the Map Control

Getting Started with the Map Control

The Bing Maps™ map control is a JavaScript control that contains the objects, methods, and events that you need to display maps powered by Bing Maps on your Web site.

Using the Bing Map Control

The topics in this section provide a walkthrough to help you start using the map control.

• Displaying a Map
• Controlling the Map
• Adding Shapes to a Map
• Using Routes and Directions
• Working with Bird's Eye Images
• Displaying 3D Maps
• Using Map Control Parameters
• Returning Localized Results
• Tracking Your Bing Maps Usage
• Bing Map Control Performance

Version Changelist

Version Changelist

This topic describes the changes to the Bing Map Control SDK for the 6.2 release.

New Map Control Elements

The following objects, properties, and methods are either new or have been updated in the 6.2 version of the map control.

Name	Description
VEClusteringOptions Class	Contains the options for customizing a pushpin cluster display.
VEClusteringType Enumeration	An enumeration of pushpin clustering algorithms.
VEClusterSpecification Class	Contains the shape objects and location of a pushpin cluster.
VEImageryMetadata Class	Contains information about the specified imagery.
VEImageryMetadataOptions Class	Contains the options that represent the imagery.
VEMap.AddCustomLayer Method	Adds a custom layer to the map.
VEMap.GetImageryMetadata Method	Returns information about the requested imagery, including imagery date stamps and vendor attribution.
VEMap.HideScalebar Method	Hides the scale bar from the map.
VEMap.Import3DModel Method	Imports a model data file and displays a 3D model on the map.
VEMap.RemoveCustomLayer Method	Removes a custom layer from the map.
VEMap.ShowScalebar Method	Displays the scale bar on the map.
VEMapOptions.BirdseyeOrientation Property	A VEOrientation Enumeration value indicating the orientation of the bird's eye map.
VEMapOptions.LoadBaseTiles Property	A Boolean value indicating whether or not to load the base map tiles.
VEModelFormat Enumeration	An enumeration of 3D model formats.
VEModelOrientation Class	Represents the orientation of a 3D model on the map.
VEModelScale Class	Represents the scale of a 3D model with respect to the map.
VEModelScaleUnit Enumeration	An enumeration of scale units.
VEModelSourceSpecification Class	Contains the specification for importing a 3D model onto the map.
VEModelStatusCode Enumeration	An enumeration of status codes returned in the callback of the VEMap.Import3DModel Method.
VERouteHint Class	Specifies a route itinerary item hint.
VERouteHintType Enumeration	An enumeration specifying route itinerary item hint types.
VERouteItineraryItem.Hints Property	An array of VERouteHint Class items that correspond to the itinerary item.
VEShapeLayer.GetClusteredShapes Method	Returns an array of VEClusterSpecification Class objects representing the pushpin clusters of the shape layer.
VEShapeLayer.SetClusteringConfiguration Method	Sets the method for determining which pushpins are clustered as well as how the cluster is displayed.
VEShapeSourceSpecification.MaxImportedShapes Property	Specifies the maximum number of items that can be imported from an XML file. The default value is 200.

Bing Maps for Enterprise Brings Location-Based Data to Life

Bing Maps for Enterprise Brings Location-Based Data to Life

Create engaging applications for customers and develop solutions to visualize geographic and location-based information by combining online maps with your data.

Bing Maps empowers organizations to:

• Connect with customers: Build rich, engaging location applications to drive customers from the Web to your stores, and boost community around your brand.
• Gather deep insight: Visualize location-based data—demographic or census data, housing starts, and more—to gain deep visual insight into your business.
• Manage assets: Use Bing Maps to help manage and track the location of mobile assets in the field and to better manage inventory, deliveries, fleets, and other mobile operations, in near real time.

Bing Maps SDKs

Bing Maps SDKs

The Bing Maps SDKs provide documentation for the APIs that power Bing Maps, an online mapping service that enables users to search, discover, explore, plan, and share information about specific locations. By using traditional road maps, labeled aerial photo views, low-angle high-resolution aerial photos, and proximity searching capabilities, Bing Maps provides unique opportunities for developers to incorporate both location and local search features into their Web applications.

The Bing Maps SDKs include:

The Bing Map Control software development kit (SDK) consists of a complete set of reference topics for the Bing Map Control API. The Bing Map Control SDK 6.2 contains the latest feature set available from the Bing Maps team.

Bing Maps also provides an Interactive SDK available at http://www.microsoft.com/maps/isdk/ajax. The Bing Maps Interactive SDK offers hands-on, task-based demonstrations of features available in the version 6.2 map control release, complete with code samples and links back to the reference SDK.

The Bing Maps Web Services SDK, Version 1.0 consists of a complete set of reference topics that cover the Bing Maps Web Services programming interface (API). Bing Maps Web Services is a set of programmable SOAP services that allow you to integrate maps and imagery, driving directions, and other location features into your Web application.

Additionally, Bing Maps Articles contains a variety of technical topics and coding techniques for the Bing Maps developer.

Information about Microsoft's customer identification requirements can be found in the Bing Maps Web Services SDK, Version 1.0 or the Implementing Customer Identification article found in Bing Maps Articles.

For information about Bing Maps geographic coverage, see the Bing Maps Geographic Coverage topic.

The Microsoft MapPoint Web Service is a hosted, programmable Web service that enables you to integrate high-quality maps, driving directions, distance calculations, proximity searches, and other location intelligence into your applications, business processes, and Web sites.

Bing Map Control SDK 6.2

Bing Map Control SDK 6.2

Bing Map Control SDK 6.2

Microsoft® Bing Maps™ provides the power behind Bing Maps, an online mapping service that enables users to search, discover, explore, plan, and share information about specific locations. By using traditional road maps, labeled aerial photo views, low-angle high-resolution aerial photos, and proximity searching capabilities, Bing Maps provides unique opportunities for developers to incorporate both location and local search features into their Web applications.

The Bing Map Control software development kit (SDK) consists of a complete set of reference topics that cover the Bing Maps application programming interface (API).

Bing Maps also provides an Interactive SDK available at http://www.microsoft.com/maps/isdk/ajax. The Interactive SDK offers hands-on, task-based demonstrations of features available in the version 6.2 API release, complete with code samples and links back to the reference SDK.

If you are reading this help file online, you can download the Bing Map Control SDK (CHM file) for offline viewing.

Information about Microsoft's customer identification requirements can be found in the Implementing Customer Identification article found in the Virtual Earth Articles.

The Bing Maps Web Services are programmable SOAP services also available for users looking to integrate location intelligence into their Web applications. Browse the Bing Maps Web Services SDK onli

Microsoft

Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT, HKEX: 4338) is a United States-based multinational computer technology corporation that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of software products for computing devices.^[8] Headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA, its most profitable products are the Microsoft Windows operating system and the Microsoft Office suite of productivity software.

The company was founded to develop and sell BASIC interpreters for the Altair 8800. Microsoft rose to dominate the home computer operating system market with MS-DOS in the mid-1980s, followed by the Windows line of operating systems. Its products have all achieved near-ubiquity in the desktop computer market. One commentator notes that Microsoft's original mission was "a computer on every desk and in every home, running Microsoft software."^[9] Microsoft possesses footholds in other markets, with assets such as the MSNBC cable television network, the MSN Internet portal, and the Microsoft Encarta multimedia encyclopedia. The company also markets both computer hardware products such as the Microsoft mouse as well as home entertainment products such as the Xbox, Xbox 360, Zune and MSN TV.^[8] The company's initial public stock offering (IPO) was in 1986; the ensuing rise of the company's stock price has made four billionaires and an estimated 12,000 millionaires from Microsoft employees.^[10][11][12]

Throughout its history the company has been the target of criticism, including monopolistic business practices and anti-competitive strategies including refusal to deal and tying. The U.S. Justice Department and the European Commission, among others, have ruled against Microsoft for various antitrust violations

1975–1984: Founding

Following the launch of the Altair 8800, William Henry Gates III, (known as Bill Gates) called the creators of the new microcomputer, Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems (MITS), offering to demonstrate an implementation of the BASIC programming language for the system. After the demonstration, MITS agreed to distribute Altair BASIC.^[15] Gates left Harvard University, moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico where MITS was located, and founded Microsoft there. The company's first international office was founded on November 1, 1978, in Japan, titled "ASCII Microsoft" (now called "Microsoft Japan").^[15] On January 1, 1979, the company moved from Albuquerque to a new home in Bellevue, Washington.^[15] Steve Ballmer joined the company on June 11, 1980, and later succeeded Bill Gates as CEO.^[15]

Among pre-IBM-PC products were the software package TASC (The AppleSoft Compiler), which compiled a BASIC program into Apple machine language, and the hardware Microsoft Softcard, an add-on Z80 processor card for the Apple II and compatible computers which allowed the use of the CP/M operating system instead of Applesoft and Apple DOS. In 1980, Microsoft entered the operating system business with its own version of Unix, called Xenix, which it licensed to various computer vendors.

DOS (Disk Operating System) was the operating system that brought the company its first real success. On August 12, 1981, after negotiations with Digital Research failed, IBM awarded a contract to Microsoft to provide a version of the CP/M operating system, which was set to be used in the upcoming IBM Personal Computer (PC). For this deal, Microsoft purchased a CP/M clone called 86-DOS from Seattle Computer Products, which IBM renamed to PC-DOS. Later, the market saw a flood of IBM PC clones after Columbia Data Products successfully cloned the IBM BIOS, and by aggressively marketing MS-DOS to manufacturers of IBM-PC clones, Microsoft rose from a small player to one of the major software vendors in the home computer industry.^{[16][17][18][19][20][21][22]} The company expanded into new markets with the release of the Microsoft Mouse in 1983, as well as a publishing division named Microsoft Press.

Anti-competitive

Anti-competitive

Since the 1980s, Microsoft has been the focus of much controversy in the computer industry.^[101] The majority of criticism has been for its business tactics, often described with the motto "embrace, extend and extinguish". Microsoft initially embraces a competing standard or product, then extends it to produce their own version which is then incompatible with the standard, which in time extinguishes competition that does not or cannot use Microsoft's new version.^[102] These and other tactics have resulted in lawsuits brought by companies and governments, and billions of dollars in rulings against Microsoft.^{[103][13][45]} In January 2009, Opera Software ASA filed a complaint to the European Commission stating that Microsoft's inclusion of Internet Explorer with Windows-based personal computers is a violation of European competition laws.^[104]