During the 2007 TED(Technology Entertainment Design) conference a piece of photosynth software called SeaDragon was announced. The program, which uses images in much the same way as a search engine uses text, was impressive but at the time seemed like a far off pipedream. Focus back on today and that pipedream has been fully realized and the program has launched with a demo.
What makes photosynth so intriguing is that fact that it takes millions of images and creates a multi-dimensional space that you can navigate with ease. Without seeing it action this might be hard to full apprecaiate, but to try and clarify take an image of Notre Dame Cathedral. The imaging software will now cross-reference every other image of Notre Dame Cathedral and align them to the original image. What this does is allow a nearly seamless 3D representation of the cathedral. As long as at least one image exists you will be able to see it. Additionally the technology allows for the storage information unheard of up until now. Imagine a website that features a car image. Under normal web technology what you see is what you get. With Photosynth, however, you will be able to zoom INTO the image and see the detail on the dashboard, or the texture on the seats.
The possible applications for this software are only limited by the imagination and people’s hesitation to adapt. But the fact that this technology is here now, and not something in the works for the future will open eyes to what the web is capable of. In the very near future whole websites could be built around this technology; transporting the 2D limitations of the present into a fully realized 3D environment.
If you would like to try the program for you self view the demo here
Or view the TED Presentation below
- Richard Keene
IT Computer Support of New York
Design and Optimization Department
