Photosynth, a technology developed by Microsoft which allows photographers to create amazing looking 3D panoramic images by stitching overlapping 2D images together, has had a major update with the launch of a new version, offering new and smoother panoramic pictures.
Edinburgh Castle walk by David on Photosynth
This updated software will allow users to create super-detailed panoramas that actually look 3D. The new Photosynth allows four different kinds of photo exploring views to be created:
- Panorama mode allows users to view an image in 360 degrees as if they were standing in the centre of the photo
- Spin mode spins the viewing point around an object in the centre
- Walk mode offers experiences of a person walking through the scene
- Wall mode makes the image looks like it’s sliding from side to side
Microsoft explains in detail about how the technology works, in its blog post. Briefly, as a first step, the software starts by looking for points, or “features”, that appear to be the same object in the group of photos a user uploads to its cloud service. Then it passes the information onto the second step, Bundle adjustment, which determines where in 3D space each feature is and how the camera was oriented for each photo. The feature points are then generated into 3D shapes and the technology calculates a smooth path through the locations of the camera for each photo. Photosynth finally dices the images into multi-resolution pyramids for easy access.
Into the Western Cwm by GlacierWorks.org on Photosynth
Photos can now be uploaded to the Photosynth preview website to create these new experiences and completed scenes can also be uploaded and shared on social media sites or embedded on any website. Have a look at the pair of examples I have embedded on HEXUS and, if you are interested, there are more on Microsoft’s Photosynth and blog pages linked to above.
Photosynth is available for Windows Phone, iPhone and PC.
