Our long national nightmare is finally over.

Obama took office today and there is a relief on people faces. I watched the Inauguration yesterday before class at home with a big cup of coffee. It was a great experience I wish I was able to go to DC but School was calling.

MSNBC is to my knowledge running the first news story using Microsoft's jaw-dropping technology, Photosynth. What better way to usher in the new President then with this cutting edge technology. I encourage everyone to hurry up an install Microsoft Silverlite and see what you've been missing.

On Photosynth's web site they have a more in depth look at the Inauguration from several vantage points. using Photosynth is like using the ultimate panoramic software but with a mush better depth perception. Photosynth stitches together many many images from different angles, viewpoints, cameras and focal lengths to bring a fascinating new experience.

I originally wrote about Photosynth at the end of this post.

Microsoft Surface vs. Perspective Pixel

Last week one of my professors sent the class this video of Jeff Han's Perspective Pixel technology presentation at the TED conference (wiki):

While I was already familiar with this video, re-watching it reminded me that I had just seen a similar presentation on a table computer by Microsoft called Surface. The technology seems quite similar check out the video below for a closer look:  

It seems like some of this technology is now being integrated into network TV. I'm not so sure if the resulting effect does anything for journalism other then providing wow factor for the audience at home. Here is CNN using Jeff Han's Perceptive Pixel display technology:

And I just noticed tonight that another network, MSNBC seems to be using Microsoft's Surface in their video segments.

The Ubuntu on the Campus Wire blog has an interesting overview post of this discussion - Microsoft Surface vs. Perspective Pixel’s Multi-touch (Jeff Han). In another post by this blog they point us to yet another multi-touch technology, Reatrix. They had a Reatrix set up installed where I used to work at CP+B. I never really thought of Reatrix being anything that interesting much close to a marketing gimmick then anything like a transcendent technology.

It is for this reason that I think Microsoft Surface was named a Top 10 Tech Videos of 2007 by Popular Mechanics

Here is another well thought out article from the blog solids smack: Is Jeff Han’s multi-touch in cahoots with Microsoft Surface?

and then my jaw really dropped when I saw this TED video:

Photosynth is a jaw dropping technology that seems to (I can run it on my laptop) collide the real world with the internet's vast collection of images. The ending result is a new immersive space where the 2d picture becomes 3d in an entirely new way. One site that shows a bit of what this future technology will look like is Photo Tourism which lets you explore the Trevi Fountain and Notre Dame in this new Photosynth space.

What if anything does this do to Photography? I have seen several examples where photographers make a panoramic picture of something and call it art. This new technology seems to negate the standard panoramic and make it look quaint. Maybe there is room to produce new emissive environments that could be called art.