Photosynth - Bing 2024

Microsoft Research is an inexhaustible source of research on what the future may be; and of which we have published a homonymous series where we have brought the most sweet and impressive. But almost always we have to settle for being only spectators of the technological fanciful things that they develop.

On the other hand, on this occasion I bring the spectacular result of the realization of a 360º panorama by the people of Reseach, and an application for our Windows Phone 8 that opens up the possibility of making our own amateur versions.

Seattle at 20 Gigapixels

At a sunny sunset, from the 25th floor of a building in the city of Seattle, the Microsoft Research team has composed a beautiful 365º panorama with a resolution of 20,000 Megapixels (20.0000.0000.0000 pixels) to push the limits of Image Compositor Editor technology.

Entering the project page, we can see the concept of "Zoom reinvented" that we enjoy in the lumia 1020, at its best. Being able to see the faces of the people who are leaning out of the emblematic tower of the city, or the sailboats that sail in the distance.

Even we can entertain ourselves by looking for the 70 artists who are performing in public and private spaces all over the panorama.

Obviously this is the impressive result of an entire research project, which has been carried out in fairly harsh conditions due to the strong wind in a coastal city like Seattle, and published on a website where it is added all kinds of textual and multimedia information about this “work of art”.

PhotoSynth, panoramas with our Smartphone

Ok, it is clear that with enough equipment, money and time, impressive 360º panoramas can be obtained. But Microsoft Research has published an application in the Windows Phone Store to do the same, bridging the gap in resolution, with our Smartphone: PhotoSynth

When I open it, the first thing I find is to start a new panorama, which is quite simple and intuitive since it involves taking screenshots inside a green box, and a pointer that launches another when touch any of the edges.

Thus, from photo to photo, I get a mosaic that, when I point it, will be processed by the application to compose all the photographs in a single large panorama through which you can navigate.

To the right of my phone's menu, I access the library of panoramas I have built and, even more interesting, being able to upload and share on the free PhthoSynth.net site

And further to the right, in the application menu, I access the panoramas recommended by the Photosynth page itself. Perfect to die of envy and to hallucinate with the quality that other users of the app get.