Microsoft Live Labs: Photosynth Connects 2D Images with Space and Context

"Photosynth is a collaboration between Microsoft and the University of Washington... Photosynth takes a large collection of photos of a place or object, analyzes them for similarities, and displays them in a reconstructed 3-Dimensional space."

This is an interesting concept, it looks very much like QuickTime VR, but without a concern for stitching things together seamlessly, rather it presents 'flat' images (apparently in their original rectangular aspect) and projects them in 3D space relative to their relationship to actual locations on the earth.

I look forward to seeing how Google Earth responds to this, as Photosynth is kind of like Google Earth's '3D buildings' feature, but it throws up photos instead of 3D models.