Shownotes:
I visited Microsoft in October and got to learn more about their Labs project, Photosynth. David Gedye gave us a tutorial and some tips. Give Photosynth a try for yourself at Photosynth.com, and check out the one from the show below.
Direct Download Links
Small | Medium | Extra Large | Windows Media
Previous Post
« Brief 670 | Gimbald Air Jet Control, Boxee Box, Simon & Schuster’s eBook Plan, Ustream Broadcast App
« Brief 670 | Gimbald Air Jet Control, Boxee Box, Simon & Schuster’s eBook Plan, Ustream Broadcast App
Next Post
Brief 672 | 2D into 3D in Real Time »
Brief 672 | 2D into 3D in Real Time »
December 12th, 2009 at 4:32 pm
Well, it’s typically Microsoft. Thoroughly underwhelming. I don’t quite get the point either. You’d have to take a crazy amount of photos to be able to start moving around in a 3D world, and if it took 10 minutes to stick a few photos together, meh.
I think the only thing we can safely conclude from this Photosynth is that your bum does not look big in those jeans.
December 12th, 2009 at 5:08 pm
I’m not overly impressed with this either. Plus silverlight won’t install for me. I’m on an intel mac and the software automatically closes saying it can’t install on PowerPC… whatever.
December 12th, 2009 at 7:13 pm
Really? I was thinking this was going to be breathtaking and it was really, really underwhelming. I think the last time Microsoft had me tipping my hat to was when Surface was presented. Maybe Project Natal will do the same if it behaves as on the promo videos, but Photosynth? Sorry, not quite there yet, Microsoft.
December 12th, 2009 at 9:27 pm
I fall well on the “Microsoft-is-usually-best-avoided” side of the fence, but I won’t say that this underwhelmed me. Perhaps I started with low expectations, but I thought that this is a nice, intelligent and compact way of viewing a series of photos on the same subject. It was also interesting to be able to immediately see 3D relationships between objects in the images, even when the images were taken from the same vantage point.
I don’t like having to have installed silverlight, though.
December 13th, 2009 at 10:48 pm
It’s fairly cool technology. I think this would be great for hotels, when viewing them online instead of the virtual rooms they have now. Also for selling your car or something it would be cool to give a 3D look. Anyways cool technology maybe it will get better and they can have a whole virtual world someday.
December 14th, 2009 at 6:12 am
I thought it was cool. It’s so fun to bash Microsoft, but imagine putting that panorama on a website by yourself. You would need a strong understanding of photo layout, software, possibly flash experience and a great deal of time. People are jaded by technology these days. Everything is underwhelming because our expectations are always so high.
December 14th, 2009 at 7:04 am
I thought it would be a smoother view like Quicktime 3D instead of just moving from picture to picture element.
December 14th, 2009 at 10:16 am
I wasn’t aware that this was M$ technology until I read these posts. I saw the video and was completely underwhelmed. If we have to take so many photos, and spend so much time processing them, WHY WOULDN’T WE JUST TAKE A VIDEO?
December 14th, 2009 at 12:21 pm
When i don’t mind at a womans chest during credits the fabric obstucting the views kinds defeat the purpose.
But since people are aming cameras is that direction already why not use the resulting images as a test for the software presented in this episode?
December 17th, 2009 at 7:00 am
Errmmmmm is it just me or haven’t Apple already done this sort of thing with Quicktime VR? about 20 years ago? LOL and it looked and worked a hell of a lot better
December 17th, 2009 at 9:30 am
Look Neil has a TWIT hat on.
December 23rd, 2009 at 5:08 pm
Ha! Easily one of the better things I’ve read today. Thanks, might go show my daughter.
Cheers
February 19th, 2010 at 2:54 am
It is a little poor, but…
Improve the viewer (so more photos are shown at once).
Also, if you look at the point cloud view you can see there is a 3d image waiting to be extracted!
If you used a video camera to capture the shots (i.e. google street view style) and then processed the points cloud into a genuine model and overlay the photos on to that (was it Bryce which did that?).
Look at the cloud for the Statue of Liberty (the viewer is rubbish but looking at the cloud and you have a very clear model).
http://photosynth.net/view.aspx?cid=09f9aa49-6760-45b7-b3a5-ed8753070b6d