I’m a fan of autostitch, and use it quite a lot to make panoramic shots. Microsoft Labs has hit on a great idea that takes this to a new level: Photosynth. Of course, the name tells you nothing. The product sorts through a bunch of photos, and figures out their relationships with each other. It then takes all these photos and places them in a 3d world, trying to replicate the exact way they were taken. This is sort of backwards from the GPS & direction EXIF information that will be coming with cameras in a few years, but it is still very cool. When it is done, you can fly through the 3d world of photos, enlarging some, or taking a virtual tour.
I want.
PS – Sony just put out a GPS tracker. It logs where you were and the time, then you can sync that up with your photos after the fact.
Sounds really cool. If the virtual space was ‘playable’ with a linear timeline, I imagine you could watch a public space change over time, seeing each new image build on the last…
(and I could add my photo of that same scene in the Photosynth demo! http://www.flickr.com/photos/nathangibbs/193772886/)
Yeah, that’s way sweet. Microsoft doesn’t look so boring anymore.
Youre right, a timeline aspect would be really cool.