Microsoft Live Labs has produced a pretty amazing tool that allows one to create 3-D, panoramic, or stitched 2-D images from a series of typical photos. The software works by taking a lot of photos, throwing them into a clever algorithm, and outputting a unique 3-D media experience. Their website provides several examples of different synths as well as a guide on how to take a series photos that will be "synthy." Right now the service is web-based, meaning your photos have to be uploaded, which takes a considerable amount of time, especially when many high resolution photos are used. As of late, the program is more of a novelty rather than a working product, but that's to be expected—it's still under development. It is definitely worth a look, but there is room for significant improvement, especially in the realm of synth navigation. The number of photos needed to produces a good synth is also cumbersome, but may be remedied by using video instead. The website doesn't mention this, but it can be accomplished by parsing the video into several still images and then uploading a fraction of them, significantly decreasing the time needed to take the pictures. Video is generally of lower quality (resolution), but is captured at approximately 30 frames per second, meaning 30 photos are taken every second. This method is worth a try, but the trade-off is more video processing work versus simply taking a bunch of still photos. If you're not much of a photographer the former may be more appealing.
Take a look, if only to see other peoples' work.
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