14 DAY TRIAL // Photosynth, a Microsoft technology that lets end users create synths, 3D navigable spaces by stitching together 2D images, will be an integral part of the company’s vision of augmented reality. The software giant unveiled recently its concept of spatial exploration, courtesy of architect Blaise Agüera y Arcas, at TED2010, providing a sneak peek into the evolution of Bing Maps. As Photosynth plays an increasingly important role in Microsoft’s mapping, location and search platform, the company is also looking to kick synths to the next level.
“If we’re going to 'augment' the world, we need to build it first, and that means that we need both sophisticated van-mounted and backpack-mounted cameras as well as the right software tools in the hands of the millions of people who have a part of the world to share. Those software tools are the next generation of Photosynth,” a member of the Photosynth team revealed.
A recent update to the service brings with it features that will make possible the company’s vision of augmented reality. In this regard, the Photosynth and Microsoft Research Image Composite Editor (ICE) teams have worked together in order to support the creation and sharing of seamless panoramas of almost any size, even multi-gigapixel imagery.
“In this release we’ve put two best-of-breed technologies together: ICE’s state-of-the-art automatic image stitcher that makes it easy to create beautifully toned panoramas of more than a billion pixels, and Photosynth’s Seadragon-based display technology that gives you a buttery-smooth way to explore every corner of these enormous images. Here's an example. Make sure you hit the 'expand' button in the viewer to see it in all its glory,” the Photosynth team member added.
The latest Photosynth refresh also changes the viewing experience for users. Following the update, the viewing page has been redesigned in order to adapt the content to the full width of the browser window. This will be the case whether users are viewing a panorama or a synth.
“Last April we introduced a feature allowing the author of a synth to mark certain images as 'highlights,' and have these presented to the viewer in a strip of thumbnails running down the right of the display. In this update we’ve generalized that feature so that you can make a highlight of any part of any image,” the Photosynth team representative explained.
Photosynth will, of course, continue to evolve, especially because it will need to support Microsoft’s vision of augmented reality. “Current generation Photosynths are pretty easy to capture, but we’re the first to admit that they’re not always easy to navigate, and to many people the 'layered look' of individual photos stacked and skewed is confusing. We need to do better. We need to be as easy to navigate as Streetside and just as seamless, while preserving the things that make Photosynth unique – namely the ability to see objects from all sides, and to integrate the details with the big picture,” Microsoft stated.