Photosynth Arrives .. Few Questions
Been long, i guess right in 2006, that Microsoft first sowed seeds of Photosynth, a supposedly view changer in picture capturing arena. The first peep into the product and it was clear Microsoft was finally after something big. But hopes floated for it to be as cool as it looked in the demo. Lets have a brief intro …
Photosynth in Microsoft’s own words:
Imagine being able to share the places and things you love using the cinematic quality of a movie, the control of a video game, and the mind-blowing detail of the real world. With nothing more than a bunch of photos, Photosynth creates an amazing new experience.
What?
So to be precise and clear, Photosynth is a platform that allows users to stitch photos together into a single 3D environment (Microsoft calls it a ’synth’, with a hope one day that would replace the tag ‘image’). Once stitched, it lets user (almost anyone accessing the Photosynth website) zoom into various parts or walk through the environment.
Installation:
To explore/create ’synth’, user needs to install the photosynth application. It consists of two parts a browser plugin and desktop client. Browser plugin is required for online exploring while the desktop client is needed for doing all the hard work of creating synths. Installation is smooth with zilch problems. As a standard windows application.
First Look..
If you have photosynth installed you can see the synth for Stonehenge Venice created by National Geographic below. If you haven’t, click on the image for running the installation.
To Conclude:
Photosynth is indeed a great application and concept. It does have what it takes to bring shift in the way images are captured and stored, also viewed. The version runs smooth and is actually a great experience. Strongly recommended.
Few open questions:
- When ‘demo’ed in 2006, a mention was made about collaboration, wherein multiple users can collaborate to create a single synth. Can’t see a way to do that.
- There was also a mention about automated synth creation which scans various images tagged similar and with underlying AI finds which parts fit where. A bit unclear myself, thanks to my mutable memory.
- Privacy is an issue with no option for making synths private. It can be a good social environment with a concept of ‘friends’ here too.
- Wish there was a clear section for system requirements. It indeed can be pretty memory consuming
All said, Photosynth still lies in Lab. I hope a lot more is yet to be seen. Eagerly waiting…
Few Further References:
Photosynth
Wikipedia
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