After the war between Google Chrome and Internet Explorer, Microsoft is ready to give battle to Google on the face of online maps,by announcing it’s plan to launch a mapping service called GeoSynth
GeoSynth uses the Photosynth technology, which enables users to synthesize and view 2D and 3D environments from digital photo collections. The application automatically reconstructs in minutes a web-accessible three-dimensional space from an arbitrary collection of photos (or video) of a place or an object, and allows a user to navigate through the space.
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Google Street View has been launched two years ago in the U.s. Since then it has been rolled out to other countries around the world. Google Street View is a feature of Google Maps which allows users to zoom into a location and see it from street level. According to Pocket-lint, Microsoft seems to want to try something similar Google street view.
Although it will be some what different by using user generated content instead of using cars cameras to take 360 degree photographs of locations.The the idea is that if enough people take a picture of a particular location, PhotoSynth can build up a pretty realistic digitised version. Stitch thousands of these pictures together and you have something a bit like Street View.
Photosynth is a product of live labs founded in 2006 which was built with the help of Seadragon, which is another product of Microsoft Live Labs and is also accessible from the iPhone. Photosynth lets you create three-dimensional scenes from ordinary 2d images of the same subject.
Geosynth is expected to launch sometime later this year.
source : pocket-lint
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