3D Virtual Reconstructions From Microsoft

Lord Satri writes "New around the corner, Microsoft Live Labs' Photosynth, will 'take a large collection of photos of a place or object, analyzes them for similarities, and displays them in a reconstructed 3-Dimensional space.' There's a demonstrational video and a 'smart photos' example page. From the site Very Spatial: 'The word is that Photosynth will be available for free, at least at first, but no word yet on an exact release date.' I must admit, seems like Photosynth may offer interesting features with an clean interface. This tool will directly compete with Stitcher, and to some extent, Google SketchUp. The virtual world reconstruction tools market is getting crowded, and competition is good. Microsoft doesn't yet have software to tie a photo library with Windows Live Local (Google does), but don't be surprised if it comes to life."

Comments

Google Earth From User Photos?

[gasmonso]

This basically looks like Google Earth based on user photos and not satellite photos. I find it quite interesting, but a little too much of a gimmick right now. Pixel zooming into a picture is NOT the same as diving into the scene and looking around like its a virtual world.

http://religiousfreaks.com/

Re:Google Earth From User Photos?

[mrxak]

Man-made objects should be pretty easy for software to put together. We tend to build things in a non-random fashion. I'd be a lot more interested to see how well this software works with natural objects like trees (blowing in the wind, no less) than it works with buildings.

The world is not static

[Anonymous Coward]

What about cars and people that change from picture to picture? It's not possible to match them. Does their reconstruction algorithm try to erase them, or to merge them?

Maybe Microsoft will become like IBM

[Rotten168]

A formerly despised and hated company actually ends up doing new neat stuff, whilst a new protaganist takes over, formerly loved as an underdog, treats everyone like crap and becomes hated.

I didn't take all of my happy pills this morning

[ColdWetDog]

But this isn't even alpha. It's blogoware - concepts and a video trailer.

Wake me up when it's over.

Don't use the word "tie"

[Ancil]

Microsoft doesn't yet have software to tie a photo library with Windows Live Local (Google does), but don't be surprised if it comes to life."

OK, I won't be surprised.

I also won't be surprised when slashdotters gush and fawn over Google's product, then go ape-shit over Microsoft "tying" a software product to Windows Live Local.

Re:Obligatory Blade Runner

[blincoln]

I never quite understood how that photo-magnification/voice-recognition machine that Deckard uses could reveal an object that's behind ANOTHER object in the original (apparently 2-dimensional) photo.

I don't know how much processing power it would take, but if I were going to write software like that, it would:

- Build up a basic 3D model of the room based on what's visible in the photo.
- "Sketch in" the missing parts using a combination of interpolation and looking at cast shadows.
- Map the known colours from the photo onto the 3D model.
- Look for reflections in shiny objects and reverse-project them onto what appears to be the source.

Maybe it could do a couple of passes, going back and forth building up various possible models and using the synthetic data to re-interpret the original image.

I imagine the result would usually be pretty fuzzy, but so was what he got out of the machine in the film.