selden wrote:Well, maybe that's how it's described, but the examples I've seen do not create 3D objects. The tours of the shuttle and its launch pad just blend together pictures taken from different locations. It doesn't create 3D objects that you can look at from any angle: you only can see the pictures that actually were taken. If the photographs were carefully planned and the camera(s) properly positioned, you can use Photosynth to seamlessly select the sequence of photographs which make it seem that your viewpoint is moving around an object.
Well, maybe "object" wasn't the best word. It creates a 3D cloud of photos(points)... Even "model" would be better
But photos are positioned in 3D space
automatically by the program itself. There is no external model used to put all those pics.
Whereas in Google Sky (as well as in Google Earth, World Wind, Celestia) we have:
1. image (divided into tiles) - let's say BMNG VT for Celestia made from 86400x43200 image
2. 3D model/object - sphere or ellipsoid
These two things are separate.
LordFerret wrote:Google-sky starts out as you on Earth viewing the sky, allowing you to select a region of space to zoom into... and its zoom function calls upon existing images of the region at various levels of zoom. Exactly what Seadragon does as demonstrated in the last segment of the video with Notre Dame.
Yes, the final result is the same or very similar (at least when we are talking about zooming), the difference is in creating all these things... As I said Photosynth does it all automatically. Also space (or Earth) isn't the best example for showing differences (our "models" are very simple - just spheres), complicated construction (like Notre Dame) are much better.
BTW
ElChristou wrote:There is several attempts (projects) to extract 3D models from several photos of the same object, but for now I never saw something really stunning...
I think that Virtual Earth uses 3D buildings (whole cities) created automatically from aerial photos and IMHO it looks not so bad. (The bad thing is that their 3D plugin doesn't work for me at all
)
