Integrating photos into 3D worlds
Or as some have put it “Viewfinder: tool for “Flickrizing” Google Earth”
(here) or “A 3-D Viewfinder for a Shoebox of Digital Photos” (here)
Well this is an absolute belter. I would suggest playing the video straight away and then reading the text.
A group of researchers and digital artists at the University of Southern California (USC) has been researching into improving the way photos can be placed in Google Earth (a 3-D world map that allow you to virtually “fly” over the surface of the earth and view satellite and aerial imagery). The Viewfinder project (Web Link) is an alternative to Photosynth (here), which was developed in2006 by Microsoft Live Labs and the University of Washington. Photosynth automates the proper placement of two-dimensional digital photographs in a three-dimensional virtual space, in other words it can take an array of photos taken at a variety of angles and locations, say of the Notre Dame Cathedral, a reconstruct a 3D model of the object in the picture (it’s hard to put into words so here’s a clip on YouTube).
Anyway Viewfinder takes the concept further in that it allows you to manually “pose” photos in Google Earth — to place them in the proper location and at the original angle at which they were taken. The result is that the photos that appear to be perfectly aligned to the underlying 3-D world.
What’s interesting (and the video below shows this) is that you can use old photos as well thus you can see what a particular point on earth looked like at a particular time.
As a former geology student I can see how this would have helped me during the various mapping projects I took part in. This facility would enable me to keep a 3D visualisation of the area to which I could easily return to and find new interpretations. Possible it could even form the end point of my project in which I ‘walk’ the tutor through the area detailing my various observations, judgements etc. Not only that but my peers could add more photos as well. It would then stand as a resource for future students to add their interpretations.
Enough talk. To be honest text cant do it justice:
