Image Composite Editor Explained

Image Composite Editor
Developer:	Microsoft
Latest Release Version:	2.0.3
Operating System:	Windows XP (only up to version 1.4.4), Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8.1
Genre:	Image stitching
License:	Freeware

Image Composite Editor is an advanced panoramic image stitcher made by the Microsoft Research^[1] division of Microsoft Corporation.

The application takes a set of overlapping photographs of a scene shot from a single camera location and creates a high-resolution panorama incorporating all the source images at full resolution. The stitched panorama can be saved in a wide variety of file formats, from common formats like JPEG and TIFF to multi-resolution tiled formats like HD View and Deep Zoom, as well as allowing multi-resolution upload to the Microsoft Photosynth site. It can also be saved to a web page with a zoomable viewer using a third-party template. As of 2021 the program is no longer available for download from Microsoft^[2] though it can be found on various other sources such as Internet Archive.^[3]

Features

• Stitching algorithms automatically place source images and determine panorama type
• Advanced orientation adjustment view allows planar, cylindrical, and spherical projections
• Support for different types of camera motion
• Panorama stitching from video
• Automatic lens vignette removal
• Automatic cropping to maximum image area
• Optional automatic completion of missing image parts (helpful for sky, clouds, grass, gravel etc.)
• No image size limitation stitch Gigapixel images
• Constrained assembly of image sets taken on a known regular grid, e.g. with a Gigapan head
• Native support for 64-bit operating systems
• Support for exporting the results to HD View, Deep Zoom, TIFF, JPEG, PNG and layered Photoshop file formats
• Panorama publishing to Microsoft Photosynth

However, Microsoft ICE currently does not provide any anti-ghosting mechanism, like other panorama stitching programmes do, e.g. the open source programme Hugin (software) and various commercial applications.

See also

• Microsoft Research
• Windows Live Photo Gallery

External links

• Version 2.0.3 at the Internet Archive
• Microsoft Research ICE
• Image With AI Homepage
• Windows Live Photo and Video Blog

Notes and References

1. Web site: Image Composite Editor. Microsoft Research.
2. Web site: Microsoft ICE - No Longer Available? have a Download?. Micro Four Thirds Talk Forum: Digital Photography Review.
3. Web site: Microsoft's Image Composite Editor. Internet Archive.