Microsoft Labs have released a technology preview of their Photosynth application. As we mentioned in our previous post on the subject Photosynth takes a large collection of photos of a place or an object, analyzes them for similarities, and then displays the photos in a reconstructed three-dimensional space.
Developed as a collaboration between Microsoft and the University of Washington the three dimensional space aspect is the key to Photosynth and its inevitable integration with Microsoft’s already impressive 3D Earth.
The movie above illustrates us utilising the the technology preview of St Marks Square Venice, of note is the point cloud when you fly around the scene. The full release seems full of potential to not only change the way we view photographs of the cityscape but also navigation. If these photographs can be tagged with additional information it could present a intuitive system for urban management and visualisation – all from simple photographs.