One of the first TED Talks I ever watched was a fellow from Microsoft demoing a new technology called Photosynth. It used hundreds of photos from Flickr, all snapped from different perspectives, to synthesise beautiful 3D models of popular tourist destinations – I think they showed Chartres during that demonstration – and it blew my mind, though it seemed decidedly like one of those tools that was too cool to ever actually see the light of day.
You’ve probably seen Microsoft’s Photosynth tech, which creates mega-panoramas in 3D by compiling a ton of crowd-sourced photos and applying a little software voodoo. This new 3D-environment-from-2D photos project from Microsoft does kinda the same thing, but from your phone.
If this sounds a lot like Microsoft Photosynth, that’s because, to an extent, it is Microsoft Photosynth—except instead of constructing scenes, this revamped version constructs entire cities.
And with that, Microsoft’s powerful, underappreciated photo visualiser resigned itself to an inevitable fate, as a promotional tool for iPhone fart apps.
Wanna see where astroblogger Leroy Chiao spent over half a year? Check out NASA’s brand-new ISS Photosynth virtual tour (requires Silverlight). [NASA Photosynth Collection]
newVideoPlayer("/CNN_3Dpic.flv", 506, 423,""); Wolf has been somewhat confusedly hyping CNN’s “PhotoSynth moment,” much to Anderson Cooper’s chagrin, and behold, here it is, presented by CNN’s intrepid multitouch whiz John King. Wait, there’s Oprah!
CNN is asking anyone at the Inauguration this Tuesday to take digital photos, send them in, and let CNN use PhotoSynth to create a massive 3D experience.
