Microsoft to present fly-through photo app, PhotoSynth
Blake Robinson
28 comments »
A team from Microsoft Live Labs will present a prototype of an awesome looking new photo tool at tomorrow’s SIGGRAPH conference in Boston. Called Photosynth, the tool will compile multiple images of a single location to create a zoomable fly-through 3D image. Other functionality, like looking up similar photos on the web, is in the works as well.
PhotoSynth is the first prototype to come out of the new Microsoft Live Labs and is a great example of cool technologies made possible by corporate largess. If it works well when it hits market, I can imagine countless uses - the company bills the system as 3D Photo Tourism.
If storing, sharing and moving around digital photos is the primary theme of most of what we’ve seen online so far, I’m excited to see what more can be done with composite images. Startup photo sharing system Snapmania last week unveiled a similar, smaller application called the Tourist Remover, which compares multiple images from different angles of the same location and removes unwanted objects from a composite photo. Unfortunately that application is reported to work poorly and in very few conditions. Microsoft has another service, Group Photo, that reproduces those functions. It’s a tough life as a media start up in competition with the big guys.
Videos of PhotoSynth in action are available on the project site.
It would be awesome if/when this goes big and gets integrated with their mapping service - it would be neat to be able to click on a “hotspot” and then be shown a panoramic view of that area. Like satellite images, but from the ground level, and better.
http://blog.drinsama.de/erich/.....vapourware mentions that the Notre Dame demo took 2 weeks to process
fantastic idea!
I think this is an amazing product and application! I watched the demo video and was extremely impressed! Could maybe one day compete with Google Earth.
If this ever gets completed and released it could indeed be an amazing tool.
A hybrid of Google Earth and PhotoSynth would be a killer app.
As for the processing and how it actually creates the 3D images, it’s a work in progress and I think it’s way too early to call it vaporware.
Very impressive
This just looks sick.
CrazyKinux, doesn’t Microsoft have its own version of Google Earth in the works?
Really nice idea !
There’s something like that alredy, as in, panoramic and real-time walking around.
there’s an example: aspenchamber.supertour.com
Too bad that MS did not actually invent or create this technology. They bought it when they bought the start up that developed it independently of Microsoft.
So here’s something as cool or cooler than Photosynth that I saw at SIGGRAPH this week. http://www.immersivemedia.com. They have a video camera that has 11 lenses and takes 360 degree 30 fps video. The demos on the site don’t do it justice. They had a guy walking around the show with one of these mounted on boom mounted to a backpack - I wish they would post that video.
Myron