Robert Kittinger

In the last month or so many amazing technologies have been announced and or released to the public. Microsoft made an announcement regarding it’s development of the, very sexy, surface computer (http://www.microsoft.com/surface/). MS also presented the wonders of CDragon and Photosynth at TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) (http://labs.live.com/photosynth/blogs/Photosynth+At+TED+Conference.aspx). And lastly, Apple released two versions of it’s iPhone to the public, one 4GB model ($499) and one 8GB model ($599) (http://www.apple.com/iphone/phone/).Each of these technologies are amazing in their own right; but as we move forward from here and a certain critical mass of these networked devices emerges, the “wow” of it all will be stupefying.

The iPhone and the Surface Computer both stun audiences with their glitz and glamor, while the average Joe is left scratching his head upon hearing about CDragon and Photosynth. Photosynth, or perhaps better put the image processing algorithms it implores, scours the internet for images tagged with similar keywords and then aggregates or compiles those images together by creating a three dimensional model. Basically, it can take all your friends photos of your house, resize, reposition and stitch them together to make a 3D model. Or, it can take all the pictures anyone has posted on the web of the Taj Mahal and compile them so that you can explore the structure through your computer’s web browser.

I believe Photosynth to be the most amazing technological advance to have emerged recently for a few reasons. One, it’s a tool which will spread meta data at a prolific rate, enriching everyones photos with more information. Two, and maybe I’m cheating with this one, CDragon will allow extremely large files to be viewed on nearly any device without squishing the processor, crashing the computer, freezing the screen etc… And three, the government can now be super big brother and track every aspect of our lives and behavior. Don’t worry, I’m sure they’ll watch the terrorists also. (Think patriot act + your favorite social networking site).