We first covered this back in July but it’s back in the news again with more fancy reconstructions.
It took 500 computer processors 13 hours to match 150,000 photos for Rome’s landmarks, and eight more hours to construct a 3-D image of them. Venice involved 250,000 images, which took 27 hours to match and 38 hours to reconstruct. By contrast, using the algorithms on which Photosynth is based, it would have taken 500 processors at least a year to match 250,000 photos.
Not only is it just pretty and fun, one could easily imagine the same algorithm being applied to a wide variety of uses: Accident reconstruction, Military planning, Urban environment mapping and study.
via Algorithm Generates a Virtual Rome in 3D from 150,000 Flickr Users’ Photos | Popular Science.
