Google just added a cool new feature to Google Maps that lets you see photo tours of 15,000 popular landmarks around the world. If these were just photo tours with a Ken Burns effect thrown in for good measure, of course, this wouldn’t be very exciting news. What makes Google’s photo tours stand out is that the company’s engineers use computer vision techniques to create “a 3D experience from… → Read More
It’s telling that Apple chose an app that debuted more than 14 months ago, Instagram, as its “iPhone App of the Year” for 2011. This should not imply that there was a shortage of quality and groundbreaking apps released this year. Far from it.
From social magazines to music discovery apps to console-quality games that players can hold in the palms of their hands, there are hundreds of new… → Read More
You may remember Photosynth, the impressive yet somehow unsatisfying photo collage tool from Microsoft. Though I always thrilled to the technical aspects, I’ve never taken a shine to it. Maybe it’s the photographer in me that prefers one well-composed photo to a hundred interlinked snapshots. One game developer, though, saw potential that I never even considered. Krystian Majewski has put together… → Read More
Microsoft is today announcing the integration of Photosynth, technology that enables you to automatically stitch groups of photos together into one big interactive 3D viewing experience, with its mapping service Virtual Earth. I think that’s really cool, because I’m a big fan of Photosynth and I also happen to think Virtual Earth is vastly superior to – yet immensely less popular than – Google… → Read More
Photosynth, Microsoft’s impressive photo viewing project that stiches together images to create pseudo-3D worlds, got a major upgrade last week. The app has ditched Direct 3D (which only works on Windows) in favor of Silverlight, Microsoft’s cross-platform viewer, which means that Photosynth is now Mac friendly. So if you’re on a Mac and have only been able to look longingly at our coverage of… → Read More
iSynth (iTunes Link) is a new application that brings Microsoft’s impressive Photosynth 3D photo viewer to the iPhone. Photosynth stitches together user-submitted photos of the same subject, allowing users to ‘fly-through’ the area by clicking on each successive photo. The technology works best in places and events with many user-submitted photos (popular Synths include the Taj Mahal and… → Read More
You’ve likely seen Photosynth in action before, but reader KSA sent this in and we thought we’d share. Look at all those people! → Read More
Although the utility of having Photosynths integrated with Live maps is questionable at the moment when compared with Street View, it’s only a matter of time before the map is a little more saturated with user-generated content. Imagine if a rooftop restaurant put out an official, well-done synth of the view from their deck — that’s really great exposure if it pops up when you… → Read More
First off, Photosynth only works on Windows machines. That includes creating them and merely viewing them. I made this one using Boot Camp on my MacBook. That out of that way, this is a quick little Photosynth of Samsung’s booth at IFA 2008. Theirs was probably the most visually impressive at the show. More stuff on the way, as I just found out that the video I took with my cellphone is… → Read More
In the startup world, server spikes and downtime are a fact of life. We’ve seen countless startups fall prey to the huge rushes of traffic they receive at launch, and while it can be frustrating at times (see past comments), it’s not generally viewed as a sign of failure or incompetence. But when you’re one of the largest tech corporations in the world, launching a much-hyped… → Read More
I got to cruise over to Smith Tower yesterday to talk with Microsoft Live Labs about Photosynth, and as of this writing the site should be live and all the things we talked about will be available for you to play with. It’s best to see it in motion, so either grab that camera or watch the video above for a taste of the Synthy goodness. Sorry the sound is so bad. The video is a bit of… → Read More
I got to cruise over to Smith Tower yesterday to talk with Microsoft Live Labs about Photosynth, and as of this writing the site should be live and all the things we talked about will be available for you to play with. It’s best to see it in motion, so either grab that camera or watch the video above for a taste of the Synthy goodness. Sorry the sound is so booty. The video is a bit of… → Read More
Wow, this is really, really goddamn cool. I love how the “skeleton” created by all the photographs is visible, a ghostly meta-world based entirely on aggregate data and an insane amount of processing power. You can switch between day and night, rotate smoothly, zoom, it’s color-corrected, it looks fantastic. I’ll let the guys in the video explain just what is going on, but… → Read More
I’m a big fan of all the 3D imaging tools in development around the net. Microsoft’s Photosynth project is clearly the most ambitious – it takes thousands of photographs of a geographic area and constructs a 3D model that the viewer can “fly” around and view. Tonight they are pushing a new 3D model – coverage of the Space Shuttle Endeavour on the launch pad at… → Read More
How long will it be until we can stroll through the streets in a virtual world that is identical to our own? Given the state of a number of technologies, not very long. Over the last couple of years we’ve seen Microsoft Street Side and Virtual Earth as well as similar efforts from Google. But different technologies are now being deployed that are even more interesting that the results… → Read More
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… → Read More
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