Dr Nic

Take 100 photos of an area - some close-ups and some panoramic shots. Then try to figure out how they all fit together. Since digital cameras came out and memory got cheaper and cheaper, taking 100 shots of one location is entirely possible. But why bother? You’ll never want to look at all of them again.

Until you get to dump them into Microsoft’s Photosynth software. It will recreate the whole 3D area and allow you to navigate through your images in 3d space.

Its currently one stage better than vapourware: demoware of someone else’s photos. But its brilliant.

Find a PC. Load up Internet Explorer 6 or 7. Go here: http://labs.live.com/photosynth/default.html

It has all the novelty value of Google Earth when we all first got our hands on it.

Only negative that popped into my mind without prompting was the initial preview of each pane is blurred until the real picture is loaded. I don’t like looking at blurry pictures. My eyes try to focus on them, and then start looking at them cross-eyed as if they were a Magic Eye puzzle and there is an eagle hidden somewhere.

Truly lovely implementation of a wonderful idea.

Update: Nice video introduction