I recently stumbled across a new toy from Microsoft, Photo Story 3 for Windows , which I think has the potential to be much more than a toy.
Photo Story 3 allows a user to combine digital images into a ... um ... a story.
A number of digital images can be combined in a slide show with music and/or voice accompaniment. In addition, each image can be panned in a number of ways which resemble the panning in a home, or more professional, video.
Photo Story 3 has the potential to easily create simple holiday stories for relatives, dynamic Christmas cards or birthday cards and so on. It is easy to use. Its effects usually look professional. And with the increasing dissemination of digital cameras the usage of Photo Story 3 could well be huge. Not least because, being a free download, the price is right.
I can see a couple of more interesting uses too.
One might be as a way to communicate technical information quickly and cheaply. With some digital images showing how a piece of machinery or a patient's X-ray looks and explaining a situation/problem using voice over remote working or product support could become more viable or convenient. Support from a remote office where an expert is located could become a routine process in some settings. It could even be part of a formal reporting process with the PhotoStory 3 file being attached using, for example, the File Attachment control in InfoPath 2003.
Posted by Andrew Watt at November 8, 2004 11:12 AM | TrackBack