Flickr
Yahoo has just given Flickr its biggest makeover to date. Users of the photo-sharing behemoth now get a terabyte of free storage space, and the whole site has been given an updated image-centric look and feel. Other changes include the ability to upload larger images or videos, and new account options. Read More
Computer scientists create 3D models using millions of 2D images
Researchers have devised a technique that allows a computer to create three-dimensional images of famous landmarks, by combining numerous two-dimensional photos of those landmarks from Internet photo sharing sites such as Flickr. For the Building Rome on a Cloudless Day project, 3 million photos of Rome were accessed online, and used to produce 3D images of all the city’s major landmarks. Utilizing commodity graphics hardware, it took a single PC less than one day to accomplish the task. Read More
A rebuilding exercise is underway in Rome, but it’s not one that uses bricks and mortar, rather, it uses digital images – maybe even ones you provided unwittingly. A team from the University of Washington (UW) has developed a new computer algorithm that uses hundreds of thousands of tourist photos to automatically reconstruct an entire city in about a day. It’s thought that one use for the technology could be to provide visitors with an on-line virtual-reality 3-D tour of cities they visit. Read More
