Photosynth makes a 3D image composed of a collection of images created by thousands of people all over the world. It got out of ‘beta’ recently after we saw the promising demos for two years. I still dont see why would anyone use this..
Wont it be an elegant and easier solution to shoot a panoramic HD video and let an application make an interactive 3D picture out of it? You can do that easily in Flash (PC) or Final Cut Pro (Mac) link
Of course, its the ’social’ angle that makes Photosynth special, but then we have to assume that everyone will click pictures from a different angle. I went to the Photosynth site and saw the Taj Mahal. All key photos are by National Geographic. A similar effort by London Eye shows all images being clicked by a professional photographer.
So, tourists like you and me will click a million photos at the front bench with the Taj in the background, and 10 photos on other places, how will 3D space will be created?
Some things that would excite me with such an application-
1 See a place at different times (photos of Taj at day/evening/ night).
2 Use of Videos to create a 3D picture (will be much easier for a person to shoot a video)
3 Filters to see only those photos which I clicked.
4 Click on a particular place in the 3D picture and see all photos associated with it.
5 Release it as an API for dedicated communities like Flickr where everyone is trying to show something unique.
Scenario: if there’s a wedding, then can it show us the whole venue in 3D if the photos of every digital camera at the event were uploaded? And perhaps a slide show with photos appearing the time they were clicked? Then, it’ll be magic. Right now, its not.
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