If you’ve been watching CNN’s coverage of Inauguration Day, one piece of technology that you might have noticed was Microsoft Photosynth, which allows you to navigate a collection of photos in 3D. To make it work, CNN asked users to submit photos of “the moment,” when Barack Obama was sworn in as President.
The results are stunning – a 3D view of the Inauguration, allowing you to zoom in and out and see the moment from various vantage points. There’s also a slideshow mode that will automatically flip through the various pictures that have been submitted. It takes a bit of getting used to the controls, but once you do, you can basically experience the swearing in from the vantage point of looking up at Obama, or looking out at the mass of people on the national mall.
Today’s feature on CNN is certainly an awesome showcase for Photosynth, a technology that Microsoft first debuted back in 2006. It obviously works best when there are tons of photos being taken of the same event - like today - though Photosynth also has potential to be used in 3D location imagery and maps – much like Google Street View.
It should be noted that it also requires a Silverlight download – much like the streaming of Obama’s address on the official inauguration website. Between the two, it’s likely that Microsoft got Silverlight installed on thousands if not millions of more machines today - personally the download link didn’t even work for 20-30 minutes.
For broader 3D imagery from today’s events, Microsoft has also launched Photosynth.net.
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Microsoft’s Photosynth is Out of Beta
Microsoft Virtual Earth Team Takes Control of 3D Photosynth Engine
Eat That, Street View: Photosynth Comes to Live Maps
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Via Mashable
Personal comment:
On en avait plus entendu parler depuis un moment, mais les démos étaient plutôt convaincantes. Revoilà donc Photosynth qui semble ne plus être en version beta selon le blog Mashable.
Et puis il faut soulgner cette tendance nouvelle qu'ont les médias télévisés de sortir un nouveau gadget technologique/télévisuel (ici à nouveau CNN, après l'"hologramme" --en réalité un insert-- de la soirée des éléction) à chaque événement médiatique.