Microsoft's new Photosynth tool introduces two new visual formats that fuse information and artistic presentation.
Historically, Microsoft’s Photosynths were based on photos stitched together to form an image. With the new version of Photosynth Microsoft is rolling out, the company has expanded the types of formats: the traditional panorama, a “spin” around a fixed object or point, a “walk,” and a “wall.” It’s the latter two that offer the most artistic possibilities, and a complement to the 3D-enabled Bing Maps Preview that Microsoft recently rolled out.
Photosynth is not what Bing or Google Maps uses. This guided tour has no need to use those arrows to have you spin around in a choppy motion. By stitching together a panorama of images, but this Mircosoft update did enabled the 3D Bing Maps Preview. And their motto has become "if you can walk it, you can synth it." Check out the "walk" of the Edinburgh Castle to get a feel of what this is all about.