We have been doing some photosynth work recently on an automatic workflow for 600+ image captures and upload – so far its working well and we will put up a post shortly, in the meantime photosynth now includes a new over head view, as the video below illustrates:
Photosynth Overhead View from Microsoft Photosynth on Vimeo.
Photosynth never got as much coverage here on du as it deserved, its only the last few weeks with the ability to mass record images and extract a mesh out of the system that it has grabbed out attention. For those who cant wait you can see the unflattering ‘du carpark‘ over on the main photosynth site. The main point to note is that is was automated and made in under 5 minutes.
We hope to capture something a little more interesting for the main post on the subject…
Photosynth is the one thing on the web that makes me feel like we’re just a tiny part of the creation of some greater entity. I imagine an automated computer process which roams the internet collecting our photos and analyzing them to create a 4d model of anywhere we’ve been, and can physically reproduce it. Roll in the tangent of self replicating 3d printers. 3d printing in biotechnology. It snowballs. I know, it’s a little out there.
The new overhead view could come in handy for the reconstruction of complex cityscapes using aerial footage. I just tried this on a wooden model of the old hanseatic city of Lubeck.
http://achim-tack.squarespace.com/blog/2009/11/9/lubeck-pointcloud.html