Rome in a Day
The Romans may not have done it, but researchers and a home PC (with four monstrous graphics cards, that is) have built a 3D model of some of the empire’s most famous landmarks in just a day. How? By pulling from all Flickr photos tagged as ‘rome’ and then assembling them using and image analysis program. The results are stunning given the speed and unproven nature of the technology involved. It certainly makes Flickr a more valuable resource – and destroys any remaining thoughts of the need for building in Second Life, at least for me. What other complex modeling could be sidestepped with these photographic reconstructions?
(BBC)