Ken's dashboard

Ken replied on August 25, 2008 22:39 to the problem "Synth that doesn't exist, DOES exist??" in Microsoft Live Labs:

The synth exists internally to our database but is corrupted and therefor isn't shown on the site. You may actually find that if you resynth the same group of photos the original synth gets fixed and then both show up. That can happen because we reuse photos based on a hash - if we were missing one before and that's why the synth was stuck, sending another copy along can unstick the first one. Does that make sense?

First we're working to understand why some percentage of synths are getting stuck in publishing. We also know that the duplicate name issue is confusing and we're considering removing that restriction altogether.

Ken replied on August 25, 2008 21:53 to the question "vertical" in Microsoft Live Labs:

Switch to grid mode (click the grid icon in the upper right) and make sure the images are all rotated correctly. That view is what the synther sees and should match what you see on XP or Vista in Explorer. If you rotate the images and try again it should come out right.

Ken replied on August 25, 2008 18:23 to the question "adding additional photos or mapping points?" in Microsoft Live Labs:

It's not currently possible to add photos to an existing synth. We do check the hash of each photo and if you haven't changed the photos from the first attempt we won't upload them again. In most cases this should result in faster synthing since upload typically takes the longest.

Ken replied on August 25, 2008 18:21 to the question "How to start the viewer in fullscreen" in Microsoft Live Labs:

I'm not sure I understand your question. Are you saying you want the view page to automatically start at full screen or are you wanting to set up your own synths so they display full screen?

The 'F' key will switch to full screen mode on the view page, I find that much quicker than using the mouse to click the icon.

If you're embedding a synth on another page you can tweak the HTML the page generates for you. Just change the width and height values to "100%".

Ken replied on August 25, 2008 07:02 to the problem "How can I get my 360 panorama to connect?" in Microsoft Live Labs:

It is possible to get synths to connect 360 degrees but you'll need more overlap than most panorama stitching software needs. 50% is a good rule of thumb. The main reason behind this is that panorama stitching software can assume that the camera is stationary and perform its matching computations accordingly. Photosynth matches images taken from any location so it has to use a more general algorithm.

Idea: I haven't tried this but if you really want your panorama to connect it should be possible to create synthetic images using panorama stitching software and then add those to your existing images. It seems a bit extreme but it just might work.

Ken R marked one of David Gedye's replies in Microsoft Live Labs as useful. David Gedye replied to the question "Why do you only accept JPGs?".

Ken Reppart shared an idea in Microsoft Live Labs on May 19, 2008 21:35:

Buddy lists

I want to connect with my friends and create a group where we can share synths and create new synths from our photos. I'd like to be able to create a named group or club on the site so I can easily find it, check on the latest submissions, and communicate with the other members.

kreppart shared an idea in Microsoft Live Labs on May 19, 2008 21:29:

How about shareable favorites?

On other sites like Flickr I can save good photos as favorites and find them later. I can also view other people's favorites which is a cool way to find interesting photos. I would love to see this added to Photosynth!

kreppart asked a question in Microsoft Live Labs on May 19, 2008 21:26:

Can I delete a photo?

Can I delete a photo from one of my synths? I accidentally included one from another scene that doesn't match and I want to remove it.

kreppart replied on May 19, 2008 21:24 to the discussion "Could you make a synth from a TV show?" in Microsoft Live Labs:

Something that would make this easier is some kind of image sorter. Start building the model and then throw out images that are too close to any that are already known.

Of course most sets for TV shows are really more 2D than 3D (ie. you never see from oblique angles). It's a cool idea though, maybe in the future TV shows will create these synths and share them :)

kreppart reported a problem in Microsoft Live Labs on May 19, 2008 21:21:

Where are the rest of my photos?

i created a synth with 50 photos but only about 10 of them are showing up in the viewing window. What happened to the rest?

kreppart reported a problem in Microsoft Live Labs on May 19, 2008 21:20:

How can I get my 360 panorama to connect?

I took a 360 degree panorama but it didn't connect. Photosynth seems to have all the photos in one group but the ends don't connect even though they show most of the same scene.

kreppart replied on May 19, 2008 21:03 to the discussion "What features should we add to Photosynth?" in Microsoft Live Labs:

How about an artificial 3d slideshow from non-connected images. For example project them onto a cube and space bar causes the cube to rotate. Or a ring that rotates like a carousel.

kreppart asked a question in Microsoft Live Labs on May 19, 2008 20:59:

What tools can I use for batch editing photos?

Creating good synths can take a lot of photographs. My camera takes great images but I know they usually look better with a little tweaking. Usually I can apply the same settings to all the photos because I took them with the same camera settings and around the same time.

What software is available that will let me tweak a batch of say, 100-400 photos all at the same time?

kreppart started following the question "Synthy, What does it mean?" in Microsoft Live Labs.

kreppart replied on May 19, 2008 17:21 to the discussion "What features should we add to Photosynth?" in Microsoft Live Labs:

Videosynthing, resynth (with add/remove), assisted synthing.