Test Drive Microsoft Photosynth

Microsoft has really been on a 3D kick lately, first with Virtual Earth 3D and now with a demo of Photosynth, its attempt to take photos 3D. How do they do it?

Our software takes a large collection of photos of a place or an object, analyzes them for similarities, and then displays the photos in a reconstructed three-dimensional space, showing you how each one relates to the next.

In our collections, you can access gigabytes of photos in seconds, view a scene from nearly any angle, find similar photos with a single click, and zoom in to make the smallest detail as big as your monitor.

After testing it out, I have to say that Photosynth is very cool. There's a neat flying effect when you zoom in on details of a picture. A Fly Around button lets you swoop around a 3D reconstructed image. There a lot of potential, but hopefully this product doesn't require 20-30 photos to work like PictureCloud.

The broad details remind me of Cooliris' PicLens product (Mac only) that creates an immersive photo viewing experience, but Photosynth is much more advanced.

Photosynth (Internet Explorer only)

Labels: Technology

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Test Drive Microsoft Photosynth