App of the Week: Photosynth 1.0

Microsoft has an amazing technology called Photosynth that lets you easily create panoramic images just by feeding it a series of photographs of a given location.
App of the Week: Photosynth 1.0
Members of the opening committee cutting a ribbon at The Epoch Times First Annual Photography Exhibition, held over the weekend. (Edward Dai/The Epoch Times)
5/2/2011
Updated:
10/1/2015

<a><img src="https://www.theepochtimes.com/assets/uploads/2015/09/photo.jpg" alt="NEW VIEW: Panoramic images created by the Photosynth iPhone app are seen in file library in the app. (Tan Truong/The Epoch Times)" title="NEW VIEW: Panoramic images created by the Photosynth iPhone app are seen in file library in the app. (Tan Truong/The Epoch Times)" width="320" class="size-medium wp-image-1775208"/></a>
NEW VIEW: Panoramic images created by the Photosynth iPhone app are seen in file library in the app. (Tan Truong/The Epoch Times)
Microsoft has an amazing technology called Photosynth that lets you easily create panoramic images just by feeding it a series of photographs of a given location. It does the hard work of figuring out where the seams should be while taking into account differences in rotation, size, lighting, etc. The end product is a nearly flawless 360-degree panoramic image that can include the sky and the ground.

This technology has come to the iPhone with the Photosynth app. Although Microsoft has its own mobile computing platform, they’ve decided to release an iOS version first. Whatever the reason for this, it is now the most popular iOS app for creating panoramic images. Photosynth’s method for capturing images is simple and user friendly. To begin capturing a panoramic image, you simply tap once on the screen and start rotating your phone. The app detects rotation and captures an image as you approach the edges of a previously captured image. There is no need to tap on the screen to capture each image as other apps may require.

Although the Photosynth technology is impressive in its ability to capture a view, during the stitching stage, which creates the final three-dimensional image, it is limited.

If the capture is not done flawlessly, you won’t get a flawless image and you’ll see broken or staggered edges and lines. The key here is that the rotation during capture needs to be the axis of rotation of the phone rather than of the photographer, and that is difficult to do without equipment such as a tripod.

When a panoramic image is captured flawlessly, the results are engaging and create an immersive experience. There are examples on the photosynth.net website, which is also where you can view your image in its full glory and share it with others. If you want to show off a location or if you’ve got real estate to advertise, this is an app you should download.

Photosynth 1.0 is free.

[etRating value=“ 4”]