Microsoft Live Labs has launched a tool that allows users to patch together photos of the same scene and create three-dimensional images.

A new photo editing tool has been released by Microsoft Live Labs that allows users to patch together photos of the same scene and create a truly three-dimensional image.

The software named ‘Photosynth’ is a mixture of two independent breakthroughs: the ability to reconstruct the scene or object from a number of flat photographs, and the technology to bring that experience to virtually anyone over the Internet.

Using techniques from the field of computer vision, Photosynth examines images for similarities to each other and uses that information to estimate the shape of the subject and the vantage point the photos were taken from. With this information, the space is recreated and used as a canvas to display and navigate through the photos.

Microsoft Live Lab’s Seadragon™ technology allows large amounts of data to be handled – delivering the pixels needed. Users may browse through dozens of 5, 10, or even 100 megapixel photos, without waiting for individual thumbnails to load.

The Live Lab said: “You can share or re-live a vacation destination or explore a distant museum or landmark; with a digital camera and your own creativity and inspiration, you can use Photosynth to transform regular digital photos into a three-dimensional, 360-degree experience.

“Imagine yourself beneath the Eiffel Tower or in the heart of Times Square. Now imagine being able to see that exact scene in an amazing new way. With Photosynth, you can look up or down, pan from left to right, zoom in, or pull back to reveal the full sense of where you were.”

Users simply need to take a few dozen digital photos – 20 to 300 photos are required, depending on the size of the place or object – with overlap between each shot, from a number of locations and angles. They then need to download the free software application from http://photosynth.com, which works in concert with the Photosynth website, also a free service.

The finished synth can be accessed from any Windows XP- or Windows Vista-powered computer with a broadband connection. Once created, synths can also be embedded on websites, blogs and social networking sites or virtually anywhere HTML can be edited.

Microsoft Live Labs is an applied research organisation focused on the incubation of innovative, Internet-centric technologies to improve and accelerate the next evolution of Microsoft’s Internet products and services.