Developed as a research project within Live Labs - Microsoft's applied research arm - Photosynth automatically stitches together digital photographs to create a somewhat abstract but high-resolution 3-D re-creation (called synth). Confusing???
Well, Photosynth uses the ability to reconstruct the scene or object from a bunch of flat photographs, and then brings that experience to virtually anyone over the internet.
Think of it like Google Earth at the ground level - say you've taken a bunch of photos of any monument (say Taj Mahal) from different vantage points. Photosynth then examines your images for similiarities with photos clicked by other Photosynth users and uses the information to estimate the shape of the subject and the vantage point each photo was taken from. With this information, iot recreates the space around the monument and lets you navigate your way around it, through possibly hundreds and thousands of photos.
To fully wrap your mind around this, you have to see it for yourself. To check it out, you need to install Microsoft SilverLight 2 that will be automatically downloaded.
Do not use Google Chrome.
