Microsoft's Photosynth is one of those technologies that looks like it's got out of a science fiction movie. It allows you to "automagically" reconstruct 3D info from 2D photos, and it has now learned a new trick: the creation of videos travelling through that virtual 3D landscape.
Although some people think of Photosynth as a basic panoramic app, just like many others, the truth is that it's quite a bit more capable than the rest. You can not only use it to create a 360º panorama around you; but you can do the opposite as well, a 360º degree panorama around something, so you can later see it from all around. And you can do even more, as a "walking" photosynth, or a "wall" photosynth - both allowing you to later "travel" through the reconstructed 3D virtual model it creates from your images.
... Now... if you imagine the possibilities when, in the not so distant future we're using digital glasses that might be recording snapshots every few seconds, together with location and head orientation positional data, and the multiply it by millions of users... Will it be that far-fetched to think it might provide a nearly real-time representation of the entire world, one that we'll probably be able to navigate through in real-time? I don't think so (even though I first imagine a lot of inteligence agencies will try to keep such things to themselves). But ultimately, all data should be free and accessible to all - it's just a matter of time.
Into the Western Cwm by GlacierWorks.org on Photosynth
Edinburgh Castle walk by David on Photosynth
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