Using Microsoft’s recently released Photosynth technology, CNN is building a 3D model to record the moment when Barack Obama was sworn in as the 44th President of the United States. Anyone can submit photos of the event that will be included or explore the landscape of the historic event.

Photosynth uses multiple pictures of a landscape to build a 3D model that you can view online. It finds the overlap between various images so that you don’t have to know exactly where the photo was taken from or at what angle.

The National Mall was packed with over 2 million people that came to witness the Inauguration. Now their photographical perspectives can all be incorporated to fill in any gaps in the view.

You can view the 3D synth of “the moment” on CNN’s Inauguration Day Web site. CNN invites anyone to send their pictures of the event to themoment@cnn.com.

Controls on the Synth allow you to rotate the view and zoom in and out from various angles of the Inauguration. Curiously, some of the angles show an empty podium while others, like the one below, catch Obama in the midst of being sworn in as the 44th President of the United States.

This was an inventive use of Photosynth and crowdsourcing for combining photos taken at the event. This approach could become a common method for building a historical record of major events in history.

Photosynth requires dozens of shots from various angles to build a 3D model. A lone photographer has to methodically shoot a multitude of shots to create a Synth alone, making photos from the crowd much more useful when used together.

It will be interesting to see if Photosynth catches on for other major events. There is also the possibility that it could catch on with niche users, such as for documenting art galleries or sculptures.

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Entry was posted on Wednesday, January 21st, 2009 at 9:05 am under Microsoft, Social Media, Technology.

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