Exciting New Software/Photography Mashup

[jpeyton]

Watch In High Quality

This software feels like an evolutionary step above PhotoSynth because the transitions between perspectives and photos are seamless.

I can't wait until this software hits the market. The sheer volume of photos on sites like Flickr fed into this software would allow you to take a virtual tour of so many exciting locations around the world.

 

[QuixoticOne]

I'm a bit disappointed that none of these are available to really play with now on your own PC. You still can't put custom images into Photosynth AFAIK.

The problem with the "sheer volume of images" and their use for model creation is that in altogether too many cases there are going to be 10,000 images all taken from basically exactly the same physical spots within a small tolerance. Certainly in places like museums or at certain scenic viewpoints there are only a very limited number of places / angles / clear viewing positions where people would naturally try to take a photograph.

For places where you can really travel all around the object being photographed like perhaps Stonehenge or the Eiffel tower then one could expect to get a better 360 degree model from distinct pictures.

Also in the case of architecture or landscapes or whatever more people will have to start intentionally photographing the obscure angles and off-axis details of places, the nooks and hallways and ceilings and floors and so on that people ordinarily would try NOT to put in their shots because without them one gets big gaping black holes in the 3D space.

 

[sygyzy]

QuixoticOne - Your arguments are silly. Let me ask you this - would you rather have this software or not?

 

[QuixoticOne]

I'd rather have it, but I don't have it despite lots of hype about how great it is, it is in fact unavailable and a private research lab curiosity.

And that doesn't change the fact that most people don't photograph things from all the angles / perspectives necessary for there to be good models of even many popular spots, hence the need to complete the database via a change in habits.

Nothing is silly at all, it is quite factual.

 

[sygyzy]

Whether it's factual or not, I am not sure what the purpose of the argument is. Hopefully scanning through 10,000 photos of a popular site like the Trevi Fountain, or the Pantheon, maybe one radical photographer will take a picture of the odd angles needed to complete the perspective. Also, I don't think the software never promises complete seemless rotation and zooming. It only does these things when it has data for it.