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The new Photosynth

photosynth.net

21–30 of 94 posts

Re: The new Photosynth

#22
post #8

It is impressive. But, I have to wonder: what does this get you above-and-beyond taking a short video of an object, and then allowing the view to "scrub" back and forth within the video?

One nice thing is that the interpolation smooths out any bumps, so it's kinda like using a steadicam.

Re: The new Photosynth

#23

Glad to see they're still working on this. I remember seeing a demo of this some years back and being really impressed. A nice reminder that Microsoft really does have some great engineering talent and they can break new ground.

Microsoft is always doing incredible research, just depressing that it's rarely converted into a compelling consumer product.

The first photosynth iOS app was pretty cool and really well made when it was first released. Hopefully it'll be updated with this new 3d stuff!

Re: The new Photosynth

#24
post #12
post #8

It is impressive. But, I have to wonder: what does this get you above-and-beyond taking a short video of an object, and then allowing the view to "scrub" back and forth within the video?

the movement is much smother than anything I could accomplish with a cam ...

Mount it on a dolly?

Re: The new Photosynth

#25
post #6

Also very impressed here. However, it appears to have a huge limitation over the previous implementation: You can only move in a linear fashion though the scene. Gone is the ability to jump around in a 3D environment. At least from the first handful of examples I looked at. Does anyone see an environment in this new version that still allows freedom of movement?

They have translation and rotation. What path can you not construct from those?

Re: The new Photosynth

#26
post #6

Also very impressed here. However, it appears to have a huge limitation over the previous implementation: You can only move in a linear fashion though the scene. Gone is the ability to jump around in a 3D environment. At least from the first handful of examples I looked at. Does anyone see an environment in this new version that still allows freedom of movement?

My guess is that they are optimizing for smartphone use cases: ie record a quick video instead of stitching together photos from lots of different folks. Using linear video as an input means you have knowledge you didn't have before: successive shots must be taken from a relatively close position and direction.

The technology is clearly deeply related to the more freeform movement variants of the past. It's likely that even better freeform movement can be stitched together from a collection of linear videos than could be from a collection of stills in the past. I wouldn't be surprised if we see that start to happen soon.

Re: The new Photosynth

#30
post #6

Also very impressed here. However, it appears to have a huge limitation over the previous implementation: You can only move in a linear fashion though the scene. Gone is the ability to jump around in a 3D environment. At least from the first handful of examples I looked at. Does anyone see an environment in this new version that still allows freedom of movement?

They have translation and rotation. What path can you not construct from those?

It's my understanding that you can't use them simultaneously. You have to choose one of the types: spin, panorama, walk, or wall. (http://photosynth.net/preview/about)

In the previous version, random pictures around a scene could be stitched together allowing an experience you could explore. For example, one of the original, popular photosynths allowed you to explore inside an art studio. You could look up at the ceiling, walk on various paths, move close into pictures, etc. In this new version, you're stuck on rails.

tl;dr: In this version each node has two exit points: next or previous picture. In the previous version each node had an unlimited number of exit points to other pictures.

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