With Photosynth users can now create their own 3D images. The principle is simple: you take a lot of pictures of, for example, a building. You walk around it and takes pictures from several angles. And you also make a lot of photos with a smaller detail. You can upload the photos, Photosynth analyses them and in a few minutes has made a 3D image that you can fly through.
Future Vision by Erwin Van Lun on this article
People think in 3D. The virtual world will be completely 3D. And the conversion we’re making now is converting the temporarily captured 2D image of the reality we perceive (call it a photo) into a 3D image. Soon we won’t take pictures anymore, but will be registering things continuously, the ‘devices’ around us will do this. By combining them with the pictures of others we can go back in time in great detail.
What would happen when at a pop concert everyone’s running a camera and a microphone? You could relive the entire concert, relisten to every conversation from every possible angle (ignoring for a moment the possible consequences regarding privacy). That’s the nostalgic human to a tee.
What’s more you can manipulate this world and add people who weren’t there or replace people with others. This turns the past into a playground in which we can’t even recall what that past really looked like. And it won’t matter. As long as we’re happy.