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Uni. Washington and Microsoft Research collaborates on (yet another) mindblowing 3D photo viewer

If you think you’ve seen what’s possible with Photosynth, then you’ve seen nothing yet. The collaborative research team from the University of Washington and Microsoft Research who only two years ago in 2006 published their paper “Photo Tourism” and their technology demonstration “Photosynth” have again pushed the boundaries of what can be achieved by intuitively processing the abundance of digital images shared on the web.

This week at SIGGRAPH 2008 they’re sharing with the world some even better technology they’ve been working on which they call “Finding Paths through the World’s Photos“. Don’t let the name fool you, it’s damn cool. If you’re not much of a reading person like me, take a look at this video demonstration. (Watch it till the end)

This technology is much better than Photosynth simply because instead of just presenting individual photographs in a cool 3D environment, it actually manipulates the photo to give you a seamless and more lifelike experience. It’s one thing to click around different photos taken at a particular museum, it’s a whole other story to “walk through” the museum.

Now if you want to know exactly how they did it, and you’re a rocket scientist, take a look at their conference paper. For the rest of us, just take it for granted.