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November 11, 2006

Photosynth - Transform Photo Collections into 3D Models

Photosynth is a very interesting software from Microsoft that takes a large number of photos from a place and tries to combine them into a 3D model of that place. Photosynth lets you understand the relation between your photos. Using similar photos from the Internet, the program can improve the rendering of the model.

"Each photo is processed by computer vision algorithms to extract hundreds of distinctive features, like the corner of a window frame or a door handle. Photos that share features are then linked together in a web."

Photosynth has the ability to process large collections of pictures fast and also uses Seadragon technology to ensure a smooth zooming.

Microsoft thinks this technology will be available for mass consumption next year and photo sharing websites will be the first to use it.


You can see a live demo here, but it requires Internet Explorer and Windows XP SP2 (or Vista), as it uses an ActiveX control.
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5 comments:

  1. AnonymousNovember 11, 2006 at 1:05 PM

    this is the coolest shit i've ever seen and i swear to you i had this idea a couple of years ago, but with no way to make my dream real it just sort of fizzled away.

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousNovember 11, 2006 at 2:18 PM

    That's awesome. Everyone should definately watch this demo - its done really well and it'll make you wet yourself (well, maybe not, but don't let the truth stand in the way of a good story).

    Oh, and I watched it fine with Firefox 1.5 and Win XP SP1.

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousNovember 11, 2006 at 7:12 PM

    I think they are missing another dimension here ... the 4th dimension of time. I find it hard to believe that you can automatically or manually link images where the object changes over time ... when you zoom in to new York city skyline for example, do you see the twin towers or not? My New York trip photos contain both versions since i was there on several occasions. Perhaps it is in there, but not shown?

    ReplyDelete
  4. AnonymousNovember 12, 2006 at 8:01 AM

    "I think they are missing another dimension here ... the 4th dimension of time. I find it hard to believe that you can automatically or manually link images where the object changes over time ... when you zoom in to new York city skyline for example, do you see the twin towers or not? My New York trip photos contain both versions since i was there on several occasions. Perhaps it is in there, but not shown?"

    Very true. You must think also about weather conditions? One day it could be cloudy and the next sunny. Could be a problem?

    ReplyDelete
  5. AnonymousNovember 15, 2006 at 2:39 PM

    Has anyone seen a reaction from Google (Earth) Its all silence since the first photosynth video post by MS.

    ReplyDelete

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