Demo: From pictures to 3D worlds – Photosynth

Blaise Aguera y Arcas, architect, Microsoft Live Labs

Using photos of subjects gathered from around the Web, Photosynth creates breathtaking multidimensional spaces with zoom and navigation features that outstrip all expectation. Imagine hundreds of photos of the same building being seamlessly stitched together to create an experience where the user can follow their own path... Photosynth might utterly transform the way we manipulate and experience digital images.

Blaise Aguera y Arcas is an architect at Microsoft Live Labs, architect of Seadragon, and the co-creator of Photosynth (US), labs.live.com/photosynth

- In 2004 Aguera y Arcas founded Seadragon (now part of Microsoft) to develop ideas in scalable architectures and user interfaces for interacting with large volumes of visual information.

- An early example of what Photosynth can do, can be found in the 'Your Brittain' project. The BBC collaboratied with Photosynth to create three- dimensional representations of some of the most dramatic buildings in Britain by combining hundreds of different photographs. Visit labs.live.com/photosynth/bbc/ for more information.

- A short video in which Aguera y Arcas shows what Photosynth can do can be found on the TED site: www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view//129

- Blaise and his team blog at labs.live.com/photosynth/blogs/