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Microsoft Releases Photosynth
Spy Hunter writes "Photosynth has graduated from a 'tech preview' to a complete service. Now you can upload your own photos and have them automatically transformed into a 'synth': a 3D fly-through reconstruction of your home, your vacation, or anything else you can take pictures of. Learn more about Photosynth at the official blog, see what Walt Mossberg has to say about it, or just go try it out right now." According to Mossberg, Photosynth works on PCs using IE or Firefox, but not yet on Macs. We've been discussing Photosynth since its introduction.
Does he mean it will also run on linux? I doubt it...
Sounds ... cheesy...
Show this to your friends and family that don't know what a real hacker is
"Unfortunately, we're not cool enough to run on your OS yet."
Those zippy cool mac ads seemed to have hurt Microsoft's ego a little. maybe... maybe it's a ruse... a false modesty sort of thing...
sounds like another awesome waste of perfectly good bandwidth.
I haven't tried it, only skimmed the review, but I'm guessing this is like those panoramic bubble photos -- that is, if you have a bunch of pictures that fit together, it'll let you turn your head around.
What I kind of doubt is that it'll turn it into actual 3D, as in, polygons and such.
If it could, well, it would greatly simplify modeling in some places. Find a cool, old building that looks like you want your game to look, snap a few photos, and hey, presto, instant level design!
Don't thank God, thank a doctor!
Looks pretty interesting.. Would be nice to see something like this replace the quicktime/slideshow "tours" of hotels (or houses/apartments for sale/rent) that are currently available. Though it would probably need some help insofar as distances (i.e., the hallway is "narrower" the farther you get from the focal point of the camera). Though I'd assume that the devs thought this aspect through...
i'm going to try it on my own shadow. result is a black ninja?
From the site: Only Windows XP (SP2 or SP3) and Windows Vista are supported at this time.
No Linux support? In this day and age? Bah.
Doesn't work on my PC. Not even in FireFox.
Oh, wait, you misspelt 'Windows' as 'PC', an easy mistake to make.
Just in case you hadn't guess it was Windows only. It's from Microsoft and they care about making money, which they do a great job at. Linux and bug fixes do not make allot of cash for them, so don't expect to much support for either and don't whine about it. Thanks, so much. :)
-- Prepared at the direction of, or to be sent to Legal Counsel, in anticipation of litigation. Attorney Client Pri
While navigating a couple galleries... It feels like I'm drunk and forgot how to use a mouse.
Remember kids, set Graphic Acceleration to Full!
Minimum System Requirements
Important: Photosynth makes heavy use of your graphics hardware. If you have an older graphics system, Photosynth may not run. Also, Photosynth requires that your graphics acceleration be set to full.
Operating System: Only Windows XP (SP2 or SP3) and Windows Vista are supported at this time. Running Windows on a Mac? Photosynth runs under Boot Camp only. Parallels and other VM software cannot run the viewer.
Web Browser: Internet Explorer 7, Firefox 2, and Firefox 3
Memory: 256 MB of memory is a bare minimum; 1GB is recommended.
Graphics: Minimum 32MB of graphics memory required, 64MB or more is recommended. Photosynth runs on some DirectX6 capable cards and all DirectX7 cards.
I was fairly impressed just wading through it.
It could probably be faster, but my internet is wireless, not cable or fios.
I'm not sure what real world uses it actually has, then again nor do I find any use for Google Earth other than playing with it.
I felt fairly immerse and the interface was easy to use. So .. IT WORKS !!
Get a grip people MS has more money than all the Linux distro's combined times 10. It's childish to think that every product they put out will just suck. When it really comes down to it MS is working on 10 times the amount of software as it's competitors.
Perhaps they do need a little more focus, but I kind of like their chaotic investment strategy. They have the money to burn and some technologies are cool, but just not all that cost effective so it takes someone with money to burn to actually get the ball rolling.
Plus... who cares about OS... they all run Firefox now and that's by far my main program. Only people who put themselves out there really need all that high end Linux security. The best defense is just not fucking with the wrong people and sites.
Just think of all the pictures of real women you can make even better by making them virtual.
"I don't have to think. I only have to do it. The results are always perfect, but that's old news." - Meat Puppets
A bunch of nerds submitting their pictures of Tera Patrick in 5.. 4.. 3..
Actually. I'm going to go and try that.
Sock Puppets: damn_registrars=pudge_confirmer=jimmy_slimmy=raiigunner=cml4524=a_klavan=red4men=ronpaulisanidiot
Where am I ?
Is this some kind of looney bin, what's with the padded walls with tears all over them ?
Wanna fight ? Bend over, stick your head up your ass, and fight for air.
I hear they are already working on Release 2, which specializes in processing p0rn. Rumors are they'll call it PhotoSINth!
Yeah thanks for that protip there buddy.
bug fixes do not make allot of cash for them, so don't expect to much support
Exactly, which is similar to why they don't focus on IE unless there is competition. Lesson: don't support or use MS software and they will work hard to make it better. Do use it and depend on it and they will let it stagnate. Either way it doesn't help you to focus on MS. So exactly why would I be whining about what MS does in the first place?
Twinstiq, game news
I dunno about you guys, but I'm pretty stoked that this technology has come to see the light of day for people to input their own photos. It's like Google Street View, but with anywhere and any camera.
My main concern is that MSFT has stated that they'd love to basically stitch every photo together into a virtual world nearly (not quite, but close). I don't normally have privacy concerns and issues, but this 'could' potentially get a little funny. Do I really want to photosynth my apartment or desk at work and then have that linked locationally to the rest of the world? I'm not so sure.
Tibbon
tibbon.com
I'm a hardcore mac user, but yet I realize that sometimes not all technologies that are barely out of beta (and have no monetization method) to run cross platform out of the gate. Just us VMWare Fusion and call it a day. Or bootcamp at worst..
Tibbon
tibbon.com
Just messed around with it. Crashes Firefox regularly for me. Works for a bit and then crashes. I know I'm going to make some synths though pretty cool technology.
I thought I would share.
http://photosynth.net/view.aspx?cid=db981975-7b23-4c45-b27b-73d294ca76e7
Uncle Pete is still my favorite uncle.
So, this seems to have a really high "neato!" factor, but not a lot of practical use. Except for maybe 3D modelers in Hollywood?
Maybe this can be rolled into Photoshop or Hugin.
The short version: it's pretty fucking cool.
The long version: The first time I saw the demo of Photosynth I was blown away. The second viewing wasn't as exciting which tells me that it's the concept of connecting 2D photos to a 3D model that's really amazing, a spatial way to navigate disconnected 2D data.
blog
What an OxyMor...
Previously: "Linux... Toward the Sunrise..." Now: "Linux... Toward the-- No, now, part of Every Sunrise"
Please climb to the top of the nearest office building and think you're a bird.
Why is this a service, and not an offline solution? My computer is plenty fast to 3D-stitch my OWN photographs, thank you.
Are they afraid somebody is going to extract and steal their algorithms or something?
Here's what it does, so you can at least see what it does, rather than guessing:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p16frKJLVi0
That said, I'm on a Mac, so according to them I'm too cool to run it.
Considering that the number photographers using Macs is incredibly disproportionate to normal Mac/PC ratios (probably 50%+ among serious photographers, vs under 10% for normal users), they almost certainly doomed the project to failure before it started by not having a standard, cross-platform implementation.
Hey, I'm typing this under Mac OS X86 running on a quad intel box I built. But I have to jump in and say that this product looks like it's not really intended for the hardcore photographers out there. It looks like it's for the mainstream techno-klutzes who want to just load content into something and have it automajically converted to something fancy. The largest portion of that demograph is probably suffering Windoes...
Seth
$5 / month hosted VPS on linux = awesome!
So, anyone find it interesting that this is written in Flash and not Silverlight?
Since all photos used to create a synth are public, does that also mean that Microsoft usurps a right to further use them however it sees fit? Use of the service also requires an account, which just happens to require a Windows Live ID.
It's all an evil conspiracy to bring back MS Passport, steal your photos, and serve you ads.
If I take a picture of Cowboy Neal from all angles, will it create a 3D flyby of Cowboy Neal for me?
On second thought, perhaps I should use Natalie Portman as a model...
Erm, does anyone else become a little suspicious when you are asked to download the photosynth executable from mslabs-999.vo.llndw.net ??
Mon chien, il n'a pas du nez. Comment scent-il? TrÃs mauvais!
Practical uses could include being able to view a house online before buying/checking it out in person, doing the same thing with hotel rooms and the rest of the building and being able to display sculptures online in a more interesting manner. I just thought of those off the top of my head, the "neato!" factor is also rather large.
Redirecting to a host in the ".aspx" domain. :)
Gee,
They must have decided to keep as much distance from microsoft.com as they could get, so we didn't confuse it with a new feature of Vista?
Or maybe they realized how many people have *microsoft* blocked in their firewall rules...
... You Suck at Photosynth.
Have gnu, will travel.
And now the BSOD is seen in flora everywhere... The once and final takeover has begun...
I'm surprised to see that even MICROSOFT is urging people to move on from IE6 now...the site popped up and yelled at me about (work computer...) upgrading. In fact, M$ even so far as to say FF3 would be acceptable. Who knew...
Their kid's pictures! pics of their own rooms! Stuff that doesn't synth at all with anything else. I'm thinking most people miss the point of the project.
Starbucks, Harbuckle of Breath.
The idea is cool but I'm not too impressed by the result. From all the hype I expected nothing less but computed 3D models created out of pictures. Instead I get a (quite nice) compilation of pictures that are sorted properly according to the perspective and angle they show. That's pretty neat but not really jaw dropping.
I know it's hard as hell to get something like this up and running but the press release implies nothing less but a revolution while in reality it's a nice piece of software but nothing that will change the world.
Inf act I expect Google to come up with something similar integrated in their Maps/Earth solution in the near future (if no stupid software patent is preventing this).
...a 3D fly-through reconstruction of your home, your vacation, or anything else...
Is anyone else unsettled by the prospect of Microsoft making a 3D reconstruction of people's homes or vacations?
/* No Comment */
If it is win only, why do a lot of free software projects also release win versions? Why not only things that eat MS' food, like office suits? Return the favor.
I run Linux, and use FireFox...
This is the error I get when trying to use this thing...
"Unfortunately, we're not cool enough to run on your OS yet. We really wish we had a version of Photosynth that worked cross platform, but for now it only runs on Windows.
Trust us, as soon as we have a Mac version ready, it will be up and available on our site."
--E--
As soon as I learned of Photosynth i thought about implimenting this meathod of photography: http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-Enter-the-Ghetto-Matrix-DIY-Bullet-Time/ If you were to make a rig that went 360 degrees it would make a very consistent and high quality synths.
of the images you took by analyzing the different angles. Instead, it's just photostitching and swapping to different photos.
but with the different resolutions and lighting conditions, results are a bit iffy.
Though, if enough photos are stitched, you can get a virtual walk through.
It would be fun if there are more people in the tourist photos so that you can "walk past" people.
Web Browser: Internet Explorer 7, Firefox 2, and Firefox 3
May require XP+, but still that is pretty wow.
Microsoft has been previewing this technology a while ago, and if i remember correctly they used pictures of Notre Dame cathedral downloaded from Flickr or similar service. But they do not want to deliver service for their users. I suspect, that Photosync is just a great tool for acquiring large amounts of very useful information for free. What are the terms of use for Photosync? Some kind of CC license? Just joking...
This Is Not a Sig
LO f'n L
http://blogs.msdn.com/photosynth/
Maybe they should run Linux?
OK. We get it. They aren't cross platform. How many "gee, I tried this on my PC and it didn't work, oh wait I'm not running Wi$D0ze$!" posts do we need? Crikey.
Okay.. I downloaded, I looked at what it does... and YAWNED. It relates 2d pictures in three dimensions. Everything is STILL 2D. Uninstalled it.
It's not really much different in function from Apple's Quicktime 3D, when I played with that years ago.
I'm sure that the automated stitching functions are beautiful works of math and science, but it's still from outside the black box of computations is a 'yawn'. No "REAL" 3D.
And for those that were thinking it. No, I'm not a MAC person. I'm a use whatever it takes to get my jobs done person: Windows, Linux, MAC, crowbar, shovel & axe, etc. (Mostly Windows, at this point. Hated the ditch digging jobs.)
Reminds me of the Washington Edu. project to fix video errors using high-res photos.
http://grail.cs.washington.edu/projects/videoenhancement/videoEnhancement.htm
For some reason I had really high expectations; something along the lines of loading all the photos and getting a 3D wire mesh back that could be used for anything. Not that this isn't nifty in its own special way.
I mentioned tinker-toys once in a post - now I'm modded down for life.
The real 3D is already there, you get a point cloud in the background that is a pretty good 3D model already, if only they would fill it and plaster the photos over it as textures. I don't really understand why they haven't already done it, since it doesn't sound like a very complicated task compared to getting the point cloud in the first place. Maybe real fully textured 3D will come in the next version.
What, non of the open source communities are working on their own version of this? I mean, come on, we can make compiz-fusion, but not this?
"Unfortunately, we're not cool enough to run on your OS yet. We really wish we had a version of Photosynth that worked cross platform, but for now it only runs on Windows.
Trust us, as soon as we have a Mac version ready, it will be up and available on our site."
Surely I'm not the only deprived person running Ubuntu 8.04 on a slot-loading G3 iMAC?
P.S., Yes, the error message is verbatim.
Maybe there is proportionally more PROFESSIONAL photographers that use Macs for image processing, but Photosynth is clearly a crowdsourcing application and its target audience is everybody, since now everybody has a digital camera and everybody processes their amateur images on their home computer. So we're back at the general PC/Mac split in home computers.
But what is that split?
You still have to say, is it more likely college students? In most colleges Mac sales are not at parity or better than WIndows sales.
Or in fact the general populace? Then from general sales numbers you have to factor out business purchases...
Any way you cut it there is a large percentage of the potential userbase they have cut out by not supporting macs.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
You can find a nice and synthy (98%!) of a hang gliding flight over yosemite valley here, http://photosynth.net/view.aspx?cid=1a012e5b-f88f-481f-ab3e-98f32c36665e&i=0:0:42&z=480.75843599999996&g=0&p=0:0&m=false&c=2.59737:6.42424:-1.76969&d=-1.62289:-1.47831:-0.880891
Why is this tagged with the above?
I don't see anyone from Microsoft claiming it is free as per the FSF's definitions. I don't see anyone else claiming it is open-source, or that it is released under GPL.
So.....why tag it?
PS: Not being GPL doesn't mean the software isn't worth looking at.
That will never happen because the natural brown of Ubuntu is so beautiful:
http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/idea/12326/
I hold very few opinions. I hold information based on observation and fact. If you wish to disagree, please use facts.
All you need to be cool is overpriced cheap looking hardware with software that works and a black turtle neck and fire one of your friends.
The real 3D is already there, you get a point cloud in the background that is a pretty good 3D model already, if only they would fill it and plaster the photos over it as textures. I don't really understand why they haven't already done it, since it doesn't sound like a very complicated task compared to getting the point cloud in the first place. Maybe real fully textured 3D will come in the next version.
And when it does, I will stop yawning. I might be even impressed - depends on the job that they do. I don't like the "Have to upload it." and "Everyone gets to play with it." sort of thing. But if they make a "pay for" version that lets me keep my data mine to work with - I'll be very happy once it goes "Real" 3D.
AHAHAHAHAHA, no.
According to a member of the original project, Kevin Chiu, phototour.cs.washington.edu "was developed on linux." See this blog comment
Following links through to Kevin Chiu's home page there are links to copious research papers which culminated in MS-Photosynth. Also according to Kevin "I believe the rights are owned by the University of Washington. Microsoft just licensed the project. I doubt it will be open sourced, though it might not be that hard to build an open source version from scratch. The reconstruction methods used for the core system are not new."
So, why not read the papers and start work?
... nobody has mentioned Panoramio by now... They do this for a while now with photos you upload, all automagically...