“Digital Heritage is an effort to collect, store and share data on architectural sites and stimulate research in visualization, computer vision, graphics and related fields.” – Microsoft Research,India
Microsoft Research India’s Advanced Development and Prototyping Team has completed a pilot prototype for the Sri Andal Temple in Srivilliputtur, Tamil Nadu. This can be found at: http://virtualindia.msresearch.in/DH/. Building upon the existing Photosynth and HDView technologies, engineers, researchers and designers, teamed up to create a virtual representation of the South-Indian landmark which enables users to walk through the premises of the temple, observing the vivid courtyards, murals and pillars that lie within.
Check this Video:
This project is now part of a broader initiative known as “The India Digital Heritage Project”, collaboration with the Department of Science and Technology and various academic and industry research organizations.
Technologies Involved:
PhotoSynth
PhotoSynth is an entirely new visual medium. Photosynth analyzes a set of photos of a place or an object for similarities each other, and uses that data to estimate where a photo was taken and build a model of the subject. It then re-creates the environment and uses that as a canvas on which to display the photos. Photosynth is available for free at photosynth.com, where you can explore creations from users around the world and build synths of your own. Start synth now. Also visit the Photosynth teams blog.
Check this video on PhotoSynth:
Check this video on Microsoft Photosynth integration into Virtual Earth:
Check this video of Microsoft PhotoSynth on CSI:
HD View
Recent advances in camera and sensor technology and software for stitching images together has led to the creation of images containing billions of pixels (gigapixels). HD View is a new viewer developed by Microsoft Research’s Interactive Visual Media group to aid in the display and interaction with very large images. Read more about creating HDView.
Check this video on HDView:
Image Composite Editor
Microsoft Image Composite Editor is an advanced panoramic image stitcher. The application takes a set of overlapping photographs of a scene shot from a single camera location and creates a high-resolution panorama incorporating all the source images at full resolution. The stitched panorama can be saved in a wide variety of formats, from common formats like JPEG and TIFF to multi-resolution tiled formats like HD View and Silver light Deep Zoom.
Tutorials:
- PhotoSynth Tutorial by Photoprosumer
- Checkout the images below in this tutorial
- PhotoSynth’s own How-To
What lies next for such Technology in the hands of humans?
- 3D-Flickr: Oh Yes!
- Online Tours: We would see many ventures leveraging such technology leading to their own wave creating rich media applications for the web which would give the users an wonderful online tour of locations. Imaging visiting a museum, or a monument which you always wanted to visit. Now imagine visiting them virtually using these technologies via a web front, by buying an online ticket at half the offline price, or by leveraging the benefits of a free offer for exisiting or new customers by credit card companies.
- Company and business profile pages updated with virtual office environment. Does VRML ring any bells? Who does not enjoy their website, having a mash up on the contact page via google maps?
- Ads: Never forget opportunities to advertise. Advertise, Advertise, Advertise!
- Social Networking: Integrated into social networking apps of tomorrow. Now you need not miss out on your friend who is taking your picture at a college after party, you can include his picture too, unless you are completely drunken!
- Events and ceremonies: This is too obvious, capturing every moment as they say! Take a peak at one of the early adopter, CNN.
- Being a part of mash-ups!
Competitors
Yes, Check this comparision at visualsize.com
Update # 1
So where does datamining fit in?
Something obvious would be to find patterns! But what are those patterns? what importances do they carry? why can’t we achieve them with simple images? A simple less obvious answer would be better personalization, say to identify improved hidden patterns in your environment. For instance, as simple as the following, your preferences on spending more time in an environment with more art work or wall hangings in a closer radius or personal space, or whether you would enjoy the company of people with glass of wine at a certain distance from where you are? As the saying goes ”A picture is worth 1000 words”, but would a 3D Picture worth more than a thousand words, well we have to wait and see, but on the whole we would defentely learn a lot more about the image using such technology than a simple photograph.
