Microsoft Portrait -- Being Developed in China

Here is something Mike showed me today. It is an instant messaging and videoconferencing system being designed to work with very low bandwidth. It is called "Portrait" and can be found at http://research.microsoft.com/~jiangli/portrait/

It is designed with PocketPC in mind -- imagine videoconferencing with your handheld device. But it also works on the desktop. In fact, I had AOL Instant Messenger, Windows Messenger, NetMeeting, and Portrait all open and running at the same time without conflicts.

Here is the Portrait interface (the green window), actual size.

The screen capture below shows the video checkbox and contrast slider.

Clicking on "Buddy" brings up your MSN buddy list inside Portrait.

Here is the video options window -- note the "Color Setting" options.

Here I am with the color setting changed from black/white to full-color.

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