Crowdsourcing game Photocity aids in development of awesome 3D photo tech

A group of researchers in the US have developed a process that can create a 3D representation of an object using a group of regular photographs.

The system, developed by computer scientists from the University of Washington and Cornell University, can take a collection of 2D photographs and find certain cues on each one to determine the angle from which it was taken. Using this information, the system can construct a 3D model of the object in the pictures.

Because of the way in which the technology works, more images of a certain object allow for a better representation, so the researchers are trying to get as many images of an object as possible. To do this they have incorporated their system into a social video game.