PhotoSynth - 3D WalkThrough free by Microsoft

Here is what Robert Scoble says -

If you go to Google and search for “demo of the year” you’ll find my 2006 post about Microsoft’s Photosynth. It was that good. The demo is still among my favorite I’ve ever seen (and I’ve sat through thousands of demos).

A few minutes ago Microsoft released Photosynth for all of us to use.

What does Photosynth do? You take a bunch of photos of something, like the outside of your house. Shoot a bunch from different locations. It’s best to have between 20 and 300 photos, the Photosynth team tells me. Then it creates a 3D mesh of all the photos that you can “walk” through. There are several demo Photosynths on the site.

Wow !! Does that mean anyone can create a 3D Walk Through for free ?

Here is another article -

I just put up a Photosynth of my family room. Unfortunately you need a Windows machine to view it. But, this is a combination of 50 images I made this afternoon with my Canon 5D.

It took only a few minutes to upload them all and complete the Photosynth. Very easy to do. Anyone can do it, you just need to plan out your Photosynth a bit. Sort of like a big stitched panorama, except that people can “walk” through the images and zoom into different ones.

So. Give it a spin ?

Here is official release -

We’re pleased to announce the first full release of Photosynth, available now at photosynth.com. Photosynth takes a collection of regular photographs and reconstructs the scene or object in a 3-D environment. For those of you who have seen the videos or tried our tech preview, you could experience synths that we made in the lab and get a feel for what Photosynth is and how it works. But now, for the first time ever you can create synths from your own pictures and share them with your friends. Explore great synths from others or create a few of your own.

Don’t know where to start? Check out these great synths available today:

National Geographic did an a great synth of Stonehenge. Normally you are not allowed inside the center ring of Stonehenge, but their photographers got special permission so you can experience it here. Can you find the rabbit living at the base of one of the stones?
Ever wanted to check out a Ferrari 575 Superamerica up close? We snuck into the local dealership and shot a synth just for you.
You don’t need to go to all the way to London to see the London skyline—you can see it right here at Legoland
Imagine stumbling across a guy proposing to his girlfriend right in the middle of Seattle’s Pike Place Market. Now imagine making a synth of it.

While there are plenty of interesting synths to check out already, the best ones will come from you. If you need help creating a killer synth, check out our photography guide for some tips. Or just watch our short how to synth video which gives you a quick overview of the best way to take pictures that will make a good synth.

Also see Techmeme coverage