Photosynth: Amazing!
Photosynth is available for tech preview! I first heard about this application in mid-summer, and was blown away by the concept:
Imagine you could take the collection of pictures people have snapped, index their location, and then make a 3-D model and mosaic based upon those pictures. Now imagine you turn this into a web-based control, and rather than downloading a gigabytes-long database, you only download whatever you happen to be looking at, letting you start browsing right away.
Photosynth has done this for a large family of pictures taken at three different locations in the world. Their application shows a 'point cloud' representation of the site, leaving you free to pan and zoom, selecting individual pictures to view at your whim. I was able to zoom in and look at scratches on pillars and inscriptions above doorways, or zoom out to take in the splendor of San Marco square in Venice.
It's not often you see an application like Photosynth which is both innovative and useful. I've already played with it for a while, and was blown away enough to put it on this blog. I think I'll cross-post to my other blog so more people hear about it...
If you've got broadband and a reasonably powerful (built in the last few years) computer, give it a try! Even if you don't want to try it out, check out the site and read about it.
