Stitching Photos
August 23, 2008 | By Joel Dehlin | 12 Comments
Six months or so ago I heard about a web site called PhotoSynth, a tool that started in Microsoft Research Labs. You can upload pictures of a building or city block or object or whatever into PhotoSynth and it will stitch them together into a 3d view.
PhotoSynth is now live. It has some limitations, like the inability to add pictures to someone else’s Synth, but you can just imagine the potential!
I downloaded a bunch of pictures of the SL temple from Flickr and created a PhotoSynth called “Mormon Temple (SLC).” It was able to automatically stitch together about 11 percent of them, although all from the same side.
Would love to see someone put enough pictures into a Synth to create a full 3d view of one of the temples!
Kudos to Microsoft for a clever idea!
Toobit said...
looks like a great tool but it isn’t truly a “web” tool because it won’t run on Mac OS. I can’t even look at the samples. But a web tool should be truly universal, that’s the whole point.
I assume they are working on it though.
August 24, 2008 5:51 am #
David Terry said...
In case these didn’t show up in your search for images of the Salt Lake Temple on Flikr…. here are some more:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/dterryphotography/tags/saltlaketemple/
August 24, 2008 6:55 am #
Jeremy said...
I remember when Microsoft first released their demo of this product and have been looking forward to its release ever since. They put out a few similar products in the interim, like PhotoZoom and some integration with Virtual Earth. Its been a long time coming, but they’ve done a great job with it.
I’ve been thinking of walking around Temple Square and creating a PhotoSynth, but haven’t had a chance to do so yet. I’m excited to see what people come up once we start shooting pictures specifically for the purpose of creating one of these.
I happened to have a handful of old photos of the St. George Temple - not all the way around it, but from enough different angles to give this a try. I downloaded a bunch of shots I liked from Flickr and tried to throw them in as well, but it didn’t turn out as well. If it can’t figure out how the pictures go together in a 3d space, it just puts them each in their own 3d space, or lets you view them all together in a 2d space.
Anyhow, here’s my attempt at a PhotoSynth - St. George Temple:
http://photosynth.net/view.aspx?cid=35680249-BC7C-4749-A64A-443D9E1632B4
August 24, 2008 10:49 am #
Aaron Barker said...
Tried posting this once, apologies if this comes through twice.
A Temple synth is the first thing that popped into my mind. I have made some attempts using some pics I have taken over the years. But will definitely be going to some local temples with a fluid 360 degree view and detail zooms in mind.
Manti: http://photosynth.net/view.aspx?cid=62fd5375-4aec-42b0-a722-ac9488ad7cc9
Timpanogos: http://photosynth.net/view.aspx?cid=ad992a04-600a-4fdb-a0ad-9df1c845d5be
I think a number of temples will be difficult as timpanogos, bountiful, ogden, provo, etc. all look very similar from different sides. It may have issues finding unique features to match on.
But it will be fun to watch the progression of features such as community addition of photos that Joel mentioned.
August 24, 2008 11:59 am #
timheuer said...
Joel — great idea. How about convincing Gilbert over in North Temple to take a lunch break and take some snapshots of SLC? or the conf center as well (and shots from above). The key to a great synth is to ensure that similar elements are represented in at least 3 shots…basically overlap the crud out of the photos.
August 24, 2008 1:52 pm #
Kim Siever said...
Wish I could see them, but it doesn’t run on a Mac.
August 25, 2008 9:03 am #
Nathan Zaugg said...
Microsoft Silverlight 2.0 has a very similar feature called Deep Zoom which will run on a Mac. There is also a program to stitch the files together to be used with the Deep Zoom Silverlight engine.
http://memorabilia.hardrock.com/
August 25, 2008 10:01 am #
Aaron Barker said...
Took a ton of pics of SLC Temple this morning. Will put up a link when I get the synth up.
August 25, 2008 10:24 am #
Aaron Barker said...
SLC Temple with lots of detail http://tinyurl.com/slctemplephotosynth1
August 25, 2008 4:34 pm #
Bryan Hansen said...
Combine Photosynth with the tools that the University of Washington is producing and you could do some interesting things.
http://grail.cs.washington.edu/projects/videoenhancement/videoEnhancement.htm
August 28, 2008 4:33 pm #
Jeremy said...
Here’s another attempt to get the Salt Lake Temple into a PhotoSynth with 223 photos - 75% synthy.
http://photosynth.net/view.aspx?cid=948CDAAD-4FEA-4352-9AD0-5FC0D5C50E85
I had the same trouble that Aaron mentioned in his synth - getting the photos of the east side to connect with those of the west didn’t go so well because of the large trees that obscure your view. Nevertheless, the stitcher did a pretty good job putting it all together.
One observation about the viewer - clicking and zooming around doesn’t seem to get you to all the photos, at least in my synth. I’ve noticed that advancing through the slideshow and/or toggling back and forth from 3D to 2D view, helps you see more of the angles that are available.
August 29, 2008 2:59 pm #
Jerry Aulenbach, REALTOR®, BEd said...
@Toobit
It’s Micro$oft, what do you expect? Don’t assume that they’re doing anything about it, at all, ever.
September 22, 2008 11:59 am #