Computers Turn Flat Photos into 3-D Buildings

Researchers at the University of Washington and Cornell University are developing a project that creates three-dimensional models from many flat two-dimensional pictures. The new system is called PhotoCity and its aim is to produce 3D renderings of buildings and potentially even entire cities.

The idea was first introduced by Noah Snavely at the University of Washington, who wrote a set of graphics algorithms to create such three-dimensional images. 

In order to improve the quality of the pictures, the researchers plan to use their computing power and a social game. The game allows the teams to upload images of buildings and to compete with each other. It is already being played by many students from the University of Washington.
The game is based on an idea of capturing flags. The teams earn points by taking pictures from the places marked with a flag. More details can be found at photocitygame.com.
I think that using Internauts in such games gives much more power than computers. It is sort of computer-human symbiosis. News spread really fast across the Internet and Internet users can provide much more resources and much faster than for example a single company could.

Source: New York Times