Photosynth

In the depths of Microsoft, maturing not only the next version of Windows, but also more interesting things. The Microsoft Live Labs division has been working on Photosynth technology for a year and a half, which, according to its creators, will change how we view digital images. The program analyzes photos belonging to the same group (for example, pictures taken on Trafalgar Square in London), and creates on their basis a three-dimensional copy of the scene, which is “stitched” from a variety of individual pictures. By clicking the mouse on the angles of interest to him, the user sees individual photos superimposed on the 3D model, and can switch between them. If there are many images, then he, moving from frame to frame, will see the whole panorama of the square.

The program creates a three-dimensional model (albeit a primitive one - it consists of a set of multi-colored dots) without outside help. It correctly determines which images are neighbors and determines their position in space. At the same time, she does not care about the quality of the source material - Photosynth “sticks together” the panorama from a photo with any resolution, be it 1 or 80 megapixels, smoothly changing the clarity of the picture as it is loaded.

You can verify this by looking at the project page and trying the technology in action on a regular PC. In the same place the description of principles of action of Photosynth is published. The other day a collection of photographs was replenished with several sets of photographs taken for the documentary series “How we built Britain” on the BBC TV channel, so there is something to see. For a virtual tour you will need: Internet Explorer 6.x or higher (Firefox is supported via a plugin) with ActiveX and JavaScript enabled, a Direct3D-compatible video card with (at least) 128 MB of memory and an Internet connection with a speed of at least 128 Kbps.