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Hi, this is Jared Lyon and I'm here to talk to you today about
creating a campus walkthrough with Microsoft Photosynth.
So, what is Photosynth? Photosynth is a software application from
Microsoft and the University of Washington that analyzes digital photos and generates
a three-dimensional point cloud from overlapping areas of multiple photos.
One can then navigate from photo to photo in that generated 3D space.
Some of the most notable synths are from National Geographic, such as the Sphinx,
and President Obama's Inauguration, shown here.
Before you start, you need to sign-up for a free account at Photosynth.net.
Every account gets 20 GB of storage for all your synths. Next, download and install the desktop application.
Unfortunately, Microsoft Windows is required to actually create a synth, although anyone
with a recent web browser can view the synths.
Finally, you need to pick something to synth.
Photosynth works from textures in your photos, so most environments or objects should work fine.
A few trees or people within your photos won't matter, but as a general tip, anything too shiny or reflective won't synth well.
For this project, the goal was to synth a large portion of the RIT campus.
To make it more managable, we decided to focus on just the Mobius Quad, Kodak Quad, and Simone Circle.
Due to the heavy processing involved when synthing more than 300 photos,
three separate synths were made, one per area. Each dot here represents a specific point where photos where
taken while turning around a full 360 degrees.
Creating a Photosynth
Okay, now for a little demo. Here, I've taken a bunch of photos of the Simone Circle that
I want to synth, making sure each part of the scene appears in at least 3 photos.
I start up the Photosynth application, it signs in, and a second window pops up.
Next, I select my photos, and drag and drop them into the application for processing.
For right now, I'm just going to add the name to this synth. You can set tags, a description,
copyright, and visibility here, but you can also do this later.
Finally, just click the Synth button, and wait for your synth to complete. All the processing
of your synth is done on your computer before being uploaded to the Photosynth website.
The application determines how to line up your photos automatically.
Depending on the number of photos and processing power of your computer this may take some time.
This synth for example took about 15 minutes to complete. That portion of this video have been edited out.
Once your piece has completed processing, if its visibility is set to public, it will
appear for anyone to see on Photosynth.net.
I happen to have my web browser already open to the site, and here is the synth that we've just created.
Another great feature is that, if you edit your synth details, you can geotag your synth
allowing people to discover it on Bing maps (as long as they have the Photosynth feature turned on).
Let's just type Rochester, NY here.
And there's RIT.
Setting the alignment takes a little getting used to but once you do it'll create a cool little "dive in" effect.
While adding the geotag information, it's also a good idea to set the starting photo
of your synth. You can also set highlights. These help people find the best photos in your synth.
Finally, what are the benefits?
Easy to use. Photosynth determines how to line up all your photos automatically.
It's a completely free service. You get 20 GB of storage total for all your synths.
All that it requires is a camera and time. You can create interactive walkthroughs on
a minimal budget. Inside or outside, your synth can be done in minutes.
Last but not least, it integrates with Bing Maps.
Any local synths in the area show up as a green dot, as long as the Photosynth feature is turned on.
Click on it, and you'll dive right into the photos.
Thanks and I hope you enjoyed the presentation.