Photosynthing the Inauguration

CNN and Microsoft are attempting to create a moment-to-moment high resolution 3D model of the Obama inauguration using only submitted photographs from excited Obama onlookers...and Microsoft's Photosynth software. The technology works by finding commonalities among hundreds, or thousands, or even tens of thousands, of individual photographs of a particular event or place. Once processed, each image's position in the broader 3D context can be calculated with its visual information becoming part of a larger model. Microsoft has already used the technology to create visually stunning models of the Sphinx, the Statue of Liberty and more.

From Microsoft Live Labs:

The world will change on January 20th when Barack Obama, the President-elect takes the oath of office and becomes the 44th President of the United States. "I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the office of the President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States." If you are going to be among the millions attending, you can be part of history by helping create the most immersive and detailed experience of a single moment ever created.

If successful, in many ways the project will provide as detailed and comprehensive a picture of the occasion as any professional news broadcast. And, in the future there is no reason this technology couldn’t make leap to video, as well. Videosynth? We might be looking at the future of citizen journalism.