ISEN-ASTC-L is a service of the Association of Science-Technology Centers
Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related institutions.
*****************************************************************************

Last week, Microsoft Labs released a beta version of Photosynth to the
public ( http://photosynth.net ).   Some of you may have already seen
Photosynth featured at the TED conference or other technology
conferences/trade shows.  When NASA brought a traveling exhibit to the St.
Louis Science Center for NASA's 50th Anniversary, one of their kiosks
featured a version of Photosynth that allowed our visitors to take a
virtual exterior tour of the ISS.  What is Photosynth?  A piece of software
that organizes related photos by identifying patterns and textures then
arranges them in a quasi-3D space relative to each other.   It's a
fantastic way to get the feel of space without knowing how to patch
pictures together in a panoramic or creating a textured 3D simulation.  I
definitely see museums using this as a cost-effective method for displaying
artifacts, exhibit spaces, and other "virtual tour" applications.  I
created a quick Synth of the Cyberville's LAN/Bitworks/Nanotech gallery.  I
took about 300 pictures, but only half were deemed "synthy" by the program
(the program couldn't identify how some of the photos "fit").  This is
probably due to how quickly I took these photos, and as MS Labs says, it
takes practice to make a really good Synth.
So, download Photosynth (only 8 megabytes), check out the "synthed" gallery
( http://tinyurl.com/5s9r27 ), and start creating and sharing Synths of
your museum!

Frank Kusiak
Cyberville Gallery Leader
Saint Louis Science Center
5050 Oakland Ave
St. Louis, MO 63110
Office:  1-314-286-4659
Fax:  1-314-286-4606
Cell:  1-314-229-1108

***********************************************************************
For information about the Association of Science-Technology Centers and the Informal Science Education Network please visit www.astc.org.

Check out the latest case studies and reviews on ExhibitFiles at www.exhibitfiles.org.

The ISEN-ASTC-L email list is powered by LISTSERVR software from L-Soft. To learn more, visit
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html.

To remove your e-mail address from the ISEN-ASTC-L list, send the
message  SIGNOFF ISEN-ASTC-L in the BODY of a message to
[log in to unmask]