Microsoft Photosynth turns photo collections into 3D walkthroughs

Based on a very powerful piece of software from University of Washington, Microsoft’s Photosynth is able to reconstruct a 3D virtual spaces by analyzing similar photos from sites like Flickr. The software allows the user to annotate an object in an image as if he or she is navigating through a 3D virtual space.

The software basically analyzes a group of images and looks for similar distinctive features across photos. When a particular feature is found in multiple images the 3D positional data can be calculated and the photos can be arranged in an interactive manner like in the above screenshots allowing you to pan around and zoom in or out on certain areas.

Currently the software is in Beta version and chances of it running on your comp is slim, it is full of bugs and well, no pain no gain. The good news is, it works with Firefox and you need a good graphic card to run it smoothly.

You know, this could be big. If they manage to somehow integrate this into Microsoft Maps then it would a killer success. Imagine surfing into a virtual spaces and zoom into details of a particular building.

Ancient Islamic Penrose Tiles

Islamic artisans constructed exotic nonrepeating pattern 500 years ago, well ahead of modern science which only manage to discover this pattern making technique 30 years ago. This ancient islamic penrose tiles was re-discovered by Peter J. Lu when he traveled to Uzbekistan, he had no idea of the mathematical journey that he was about to embark on as well, it just so happen that the motives on the wall caught his attention and the rest is hostory.

In particular, the Darb-i Imam shrine in Isfahan, Iran, which dates to A.D. 1453, is covered in a symmetric pattern of pentagons and 10-sided stars. If extended indefinitely in all directions, the researchers say, it would never repeat itself—the hallmark of a quasicrystal. Quoted from SA

From a non-muslim point of view, this is really impressive. The Islamic Golden Age is indeed way ahead of its time, the Renaissance owe its success to the islamic science, especially in the field of algebraic and trigonometry. Read the article at Math Trek.