Photosynth

Microsoft haters, and those that can't bear to have anything except HTML in their browser, stop reading now. Read something with 'SMC', or 'Limited' in it instead.

All others, I commend to you the brief presentation at

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/129,

and the installation at

http://labs.live.com/photosynth/

(it's a tech preview, not a finished product, so don't be surprised if you have to refresh the page a couple of times before it works)

Then have a little explore.

I think it's pretty cool.

well under normal circumstances I might easily be called a Microsoft hater, but credit where it's due that's very impressive.

The implications of that software for my Dad's job is mind blowing. He is a land surveyor and has already been using photo registration for some time. The difference is that his photos are registered onto 3D survey data gathered by a total station (such as the Pentax R300). That thing is registering photos onto one another. I wonder how accurate the model he showed at the start of the photosynth bit is.

Very impressive, with great potential as a research tool either for work or leisure.
I don't know if there are future plans for a central repositories to upload images to, but I like the idea of being able to contribute to the 'world knowledge base' through my humble offerings.

I like the idea of the first section.. a lot.

Quite a few here have online websites/photogalleries. You could put your entire collection on what amounts to one page, and then arrange them in a way that you can just zoom/scroll to the section of interest. Another application, could be family tree sites. You'd have the whole tree on one page and just go to the section you want.. probably. Okay, not the most advanced use of the technology, but definitely useful nontheless..

Cheers

Liam

A little over a year ago, PhotoSynth was just a couple of demos.

They've now released the software, it's free, and it works.

I thought the demos last year were pretty cool.

The reality is even more so.

____________
Edit: it was only released yesterday, and was promptly overloaded. It was back up earlier, but looks like it's down again. I guess it'll be a little while before it settles down.
____________
Edit: no, it's up again.

I went out into the garden earlier, and snapped 30-odd 6MP JPEGs. Great art it ain't, but it does prove it works.

I can't believe no one here would be interested in PhotoSynth. Surely I'm not the only one here childish enough to run around taking a bunch pictures and then uploading them to see if it all really works?

So, shameless bump

Well, looking at the evidence........

G

I have not tried to use the software yet, but the site is so slow that its pointless even looking. One photo loads then you click to move forward and have to wait so long its more just like looking at seperate pictures rather than a "3d world".

Guess so...
Hmm. I can see why that would make it poor. It's fast enough for me though. Maybe it'll speed up - considering how many thousands of synths are there already, it's not surprising if it's slow to start with at times.

Makes me think of the scene in Bladerunner when they view the photo and zoom in, then look round the corner to see the dress on the bed(? could be wrong with the detail).

It's a nice idea, but yes, it does run slowly at the moment - surely the start of something a lot better though.

Dan

this is a good one
link

I had a go with some pano images from this morning, but the software couldn't figure out this simple 2D sequence.
link
Maybe it was too grey or not textured enough.
I tried the same images straight from the camera but it hung while I was out. SO I reduced them.
I managed 31% synthy - which, if the end result is anything to go by, is really bad

Looks like hundreds of small shots is good. And they say 'use wide angle' which is not the normal method for stitching images. ( I didn't, I used 50mm).

by the way, well done ChrisA, good effort - looks like you prefer shootin' to mowing the lawn don't tell me...it was raining

Are there really two bridges in yours, or has it just got it completely wrong?

both! there are two bridges over the Tamar but it has got it all wrong and broken it all up.
Actually some of the 100% synthy images are really lame and they could have just taken a wider shot. The software has a long way to go, but it's quite tempting to go for the best 'synth'.
I wonder how it'll cope with the fisheye?... that should make the viewers sick if nothing else.

Not sure I understand then. I can't see any stitching failures.

They're quite specific about that kind of thing in their guidelines doc.

I think it will be a while before the technology, and people's ability to use it, matures, and I'm sure the things people put up there will contain everything from the sublime to the truly awful - like ordinary photography.

But I really like the concept, and, all things considered, the implementation, which is IMO pretty damn good for the first public release of something so novel.

Hit the 'play' button, it then comes up with several, un-stitched images. Note there are 25 images in Darkmonk's synthy.

Dan