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Want to know what Microsoft’s new Photosynth is all about how it performs, then this article is worth checking out. You can get plenty of perspective and examples of how this new tool works. Of course, it is really a tool or just a shiny new toy? In a year from now, will using the synth model be something used in business and art or will it be a novelty that pops up from time to time?

Photosynth is an online tool that evaluates the content of multiple photographs which contain much of the same subject matter, shot from differing angles or at different times. Its objective is to assemble a three-dimensional montage that pieces together those photos at precisely the parts where they overlap, even if the angles at which those contents were shot changes drastically. It then provides a 3D walkthrough tool for users to peruse each photo as though she were walking (or traveling, or flying) along the same routes the photographer took.

After a few days, a mixed verdict on Microsoft Photosynth

I can’t really say I like the rather juvenile “synth” jargon that Microsoft is throwing around trying to make their product into a verb like “Google” but their new photo stitching software does seem somewhat interesting. I can’t say I have taken many panoramas in my day, but then again this software seems to be more than just putting together a long photo. It seems to be trying to build a large photo out of a collection of smaller ones.

I haven’t actually looked through all the demos yet (the machine I’m sitting in front of right now is Windows 2000 and the site only works with XP and Vista) but I am curious to see more. Will this allow the viewer to move around an image and click points of interest to see more in a photo? Will it be something Google maps like where you can follow the path in an image and have the terrain move around you?

Everything is done online currently and the photos you work with will be uploaded to the public site and visible to everyone. Hard to say if that will be a drawback or not. It is a 1.0 product so I’m sure plenty will change as it progresses. It seems interesting but does have some limitations you have to work within.

It seems promising, but Microsoft can ditch the gimmicky synth lingo and just let the software speak for itself. If it’s actually worthwhile it will catch on.

Photosynth

Is this another admission that Vista may suck, but it doesn’t suck as much as it used to? It looks like Microsoft is trying to do a whole lot of convincing that people need this new OS. Considering users are protesting the loss of XP, I think MS needs to do a whole lot more work to make Vista usable before anyone is going to bite. If anything Microsoft needs to start adding some useful features and not just bloated eye candy in order to sell their products. Microsoft is losing ground against their competitors each day with shipping products late and delivering less than stellar performance. Looks like Microsoft needs to get back in the game.

Nash’s key takeaway: A PC with Vista SP1 is going to run a lot better than a PC with Vista that customers might have bought 16 months ago.

Microsoft believes that propagating this kind of data will help the company make the case that Vista is getting better all the time.

But here’s where that logic breaks down. Many users inherently distrust data about Microsoft products that comes from Microsoft, rather than independent reviewers or third-party researchers not taking Microsoft’s money to do studies. At the same time, only some of the critiques of Vista are based on actual Vista users working with recent builds of the product. Apples-to-apples comparisons between Vista and XP, Vista and Leopard and Vista and Linux are few and far between. Those kinds of comparisons, many of which are taken as fact, are beyond Microsoft’s control.

How can Microsoft overcome Vista’s lingering image problem?