"Photo Tourism" research project by Microsoft, 2006

Intel and the University of Washington at  had a press release the other day about taking photos from the internet to use for creating 3D models of places. It’s a cool idea that’s been around for a number of years. In 2006 Microsoft was researching the technology calling the research Photo Tourism.

Here are a few other projects:

Photo to 3D: This website takes just one photograph to make a 3D models. Its and interesting exercise, but needs more vantage points to get a full 3D model.

www.photo-to-3d.com

Make 3D: Stanford had a research project too

make3d.stanford.edu

Here’s Smart Planet’s video on the Intel and University collaboration.

smartplanet.com

Here are some commercial products that takes your photos to create a mesh and texture maps.

3dsom.com

Strata 3D