MICROSOFT RESEARCH HAS launched a little desktop app that lets users create one big collage of all their favourite snaps.

Now that all+dog has a digital camera, people are happy to snap away merrily wherever they go, but then end up a stack of photos they're never going to sort through.

The obviously named Autocollage 2008 is designed to help turn this unwieldy mass into a single collage image that can be printed out or used in e-postcards, web pages, desktop backgrounds or e-mailed to family and friends.

Apparently the software uses advanced computer vision and image processing to blend the images together seamlessly and choose images that are most representative of the overall theme while avoiding duplications.

"The most significant feature that differentiates AutoCollage is that it offers exceptionally sophisticated blending technology for photographs, powered by state-of-the-art computer vision techniques," said Alisson Sol, development manager at Microsoft Research Cambridge.

The application started as a research project at Microsoft Research Cambridge in the UK back in 2005. It also features technology developed by Microsoft researchers in China and Redmond.

If you run Vista or XP SP2 and above and you want to check out the program it can be downloaded here as a 30-day free trial, and is available to purchase in the UK (£19.90) and US ($19.90) only at this time. As usual those in Blighty are left paying over the odds. µ