Microsoft offers free gigapixel app, Seadragon, for the iPhone

Microsoft's Live Labs wants its Seadragon technology to run everywhere, and says the iPhone has the graphics processing power to run it

Microsoft's Live Labs has released its Seadragon application -- which enables users to "deep zoom" into gigapixel-size images -- for Apple's iPhone. Live Labs says:


It also has a video of developer Ben Vanik talking about it.

Why the iPhone? Alex Daley, group product manager for Microsoft Live Labs, told Todd Bishop's Microsoft Blog:

"The iPhone is the most widely distributed phone with a (graphics processing unit)," Daley explained. "Most phones out today don't have accelerated graphics in them. The iPhone does and so it enabled us to do something that has been previously difficult to do. I couldn't just pick up a Blackberry or a Nokia off the shelf and build Seadragon for it without GPU support."

He forgot to mention that he couldn't just pick up a Windows Mobile phone either….

Seadragon is used in Silverlight and in Microsoft's Photosynth, which allows users to take a group of photographs and stitch them together. I blogged about its release in August. Photosynth only runs on Windows XP (SP2 or SP3) and Windows Vista at the moment.