The ISS as seen using MS Photosynth
Not usually being one to comment on space related stuff, I find the need to comment on nasa.gov’s use of microsoft photosynth in their presentation of photos of the international space station. From the few times I have visited nasa.gov I have found that the images are always of the highest quality, but in this case of using MS photosynth for displaying images of the ISS I feel disappointed. For those of you who are not familiar with photosynth it allows you to take a number of images of the same object or scene and turns them into an interactive 3D experience, which can then be shared. The problem is that in order to create a seamless experience you need a lot of very high resolution images. For the “good” ones I have seen you typically would need hundreds of images with consistent background lighting to create a seamless view. Now, I fully understand that doing something like this in space would have a whole other set of challenges. Not only the fact that the ISS is orbiting the earth at 27,500 km/h, attempting to get consistent lighting is also a big issue. However, since there are only a few images, and most of these have varying backgrounds, this leads to a rather grainy 3D experience. I would rather have nasa use some other technology, like Quicktime VR or immersive media, to create a 3D like experience. I feel that using this type of technology would create a better user experience than photosynth. Given the challenges nasa haven’t done that bad a job, but I just feel that it does not come up to the standards of the other user experiences which nasa offer.
Go take a look over at nasa.gov and drop me a comment letting me know what you think.