Aug
29
Written by:
Chris Chodnicki
8/29/2007 8:30 PM
Believe it or not YouTube has been around for less than two years. During this period they built a community that attracted over 20 million unique visitors per month. Today YouTube, Flickr and other such media sites are common and part of the everyday fabric of a web 2.0 experience. Mashups, or the mix of information such as images, data and documents on a site are also a relatively new but have quickly gained incredible usefulness. For instance most of us have used Google Maps, MapQuest or Microsoft’s Virtual Earth to locate a restaurant or get driving directions to a destination. Have you ever chosen the satellite view and zoomed in on your home? It is fun to do but not overly useful especially since the image is typically several years old and the zoom level is not clear. Now imagine multiple pictures of your home from various angles pieced together for a 3 dimensional view with the ability to zoom to a granular level from various angles.
No need to imagine as this is a new Microsoft based image technology called Photosynth. Photosynth was unveiled at the 2007 Technology, Entertainment and Design conference (www.ted.com).
To get an idea of what it is about take a few minutes to watch these presentations:
Given that most cell phones and new cameras have GPS ability, Photosynth will quickly hit the next generation of hot trends for community based sites. How different will we look at our world under the microscope of everyone participating in the collection of digital images? Two dimensional pictures of today are going to be the Polaroid of the 60’s. How this will be used, who will own it and how it will effect our lives will be the questions to be resolved – and soon.
Download a pre-release of Photsynth by clicking here.
Tags: