Web and Tech News in the Northwest

Today Microsoft launched their Photosynth website and it’s very cool photo tour product.  This product is very cool. From Microsoft’s site: “Imagine being able to share the places and things you love using the cinematic quality of a movie, the control of a video game, and the mind-blowing detail of the real world. With nothing more than a bunch of photos, Photosynth creates an amazing new experience.”

I created an account and walked through Rick’s Potting Shed.  Not the most exciting topic I thought, but the tool is so cool that I actually enjoyed taking a tour of, well, Rick’s Potting Shed.

What the tool does is take between 10 and 300 photos of a subject, Microsoft’s recommendations, and pieces them together to create “something between pictures and videos”.  After your photo’s are “synthed” you can take a tour through all the pictures.  It pinpoints common points in each picture and pieces them together.  So in Rick’s case, I could walk completely around his shed, open the door, walk inside and check out the interior.  This is also great for tours of streets and properties.

The Photosynth site has many “synths” already loaded for you to tour.  I wasn’t able to login and view using a PC and Firefox, although I met all the requirements.  Once I switched to IE7, I had no problem.

Northwest implications?  Well, if you sell real estate, both commercial and residential, this could be a cheap and easier way to give your potential clients a walk through and around your property.  Once the photos are synthed, there doesn’t seem to be any limitations to the direction you can view the subject from, assuming you took good photos.

I don’t think there is the option right now to host these synths on your site, but I would assume some sharing type function will come down the road.  The creation of something like this in a widget would truly open up the uses of this to other sites, including e-commerce.  I sure could see a use for this in auto and other sites.

Tags: microsoft, photos