PhotoSynth is the Microsoft Research / Seadragon / UWashington technology that can process a collection of photos and turn it into a scene that can be navigated in 3D.
At this year’s Siggraph conference, there’s an interesting paper from the University of Washington and Microsoft about finding more intelligent paths through collections of photos like the ones produced by PhotoSynth.
Here’s the video that accompanies that paper:
(Click for direct link to YouTube)
When I was working for Microsoft in Dublin, I experimented with what was then an internal tool for creating PhotoSynths. I ran around Dublin taking photos of some famous places.
Two of my favourite Photosynth collections were shot in the early morning quiet at The Temple Bar Pub. Now, with the public release of PhotoSynth, I can publish these to the web!
Temple Bar (Front Bar), Dublin, Ireland
(Click for larger view on Photosynth site)
If I could go back and shoot these again, I’d put more time into taking close-ups of objects and memorabilia of interest. Photosynth shines in scenes where the viewer is interested in navigating the scene to discover and examine points of interest.
Temple Bar (Back Bar), Dublin, Ireland
(Click for larger view on Photosynth site)
I also have Synths of Newgrange and the Liffey River which I will post when I have a chance to find the original photos.
Congratulations to the PhotoSynth team, and please send me a link if you ‘Synth something cool!
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Paul M. Watson says
It is truly awesome stuff. The code and thought that goes into it must be quite incredible. I hope the Mac version follows soon, I want to use this daily.
August 26, 2008Mark says
There is now an experimental viewer available that was developed in Silverlight: http://www.photosynth.com/silverlight. It doesn’t have all the functionality of the full client but it should be able to give you a great experience on a PC or Mac.
December 16, 2008