This is an interesting site that I found recently. it’s at http://make3d.stanford.edu/userimages/show
The way it works is you upload an image to it and it performs some magic on that image to convert it into a three dimensional model.
It’s free to sign up for an account. Once you’ve signed up you can upload one picture to be converted. In order to be able to convert more pictures you need to earn karma by rating other people’s pictures.
You can either upload a picture from your computer or use one on Flickr. It will then be added to the queue of images. For each of the pictures I’ve tried it with, I uploaded the picture in the evening and by the time I got home from work the next day there was an email telling me it was ready.
The system creates the model as a VRML (remember that?) file. To be able to use it you need to download that as well as a copy of the image to be able to use it. The system also creates a flash video moving round the 3d model.
I did have some trouble finding a VRML program to view the model with that works on my system. Blender is supposed to be able to import VRML files but I got errors when I tried. The only program I could get to work is one called Octaga player. It’s rather slow, though I’m not sure whether that’s down to my computer (which isn’t exactly cutting edge), the program or the complexity of the model.
The results can be quite variable. Sometimes it does feel like you’re moving around a 3d enviroment, others it just seems as though you’re zooming in and out of a 2d picture.
These pictures produced the best results
This one didn’t work as well
There is an option to improve the conversion by drawing boxes on the picture to show where the main plains are. However it didn’t seem to be working. The box you were supposed to draw on comes up blank, so unless you’re supposed to use guess work, I think there’s a bug there.
So is this just a fun gimmick, or will people be able to use it for serious work. I’m still undecided about this, but am leaning to the former at the moment.
Posted by msparshatt 
