Just got this news from Jiang from Microsoft Research:

Hi Arne,
We released Microsoft Portrait 1.1. Portrait video has colors! We add basic colors of a video to the original black/white portrait video. Now portrait video looks like watercolor but still keeps low bitrate property. Please check the "Plus watercolor" box in Tools->Options->Video menu in PC version to enable watercolor effect of portrait video.

If you don't know what Microsoft Portrait is, here is a short info:

Microsoft Portrait is very low bitrate video conferencing software supporting MSN Messenger and Internet Locator Service (ILS) on PCs, Pocket PCs and Handheld PCs. It runs on local area networks, dialup networks and even wireless networks with bandwidths as low as 9.6 kilobits/second. Microsoft Portrait delivers portrait-like black/white video which can work in bandwidths so low that full color video could never work. The portrait video is so small that it can even be transmitted through an HTTP proxy as text. Microsoft Portrait provides basic chat/voice/video functions almost anytime, anywhere, on any device.

Go and give it a look!

Cheers ~ Arne

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