Researchers reconstruct 3D models of a city from tourist photos

As a quick early indicator of the sort of results analyzing the Internet can produce, a group of researchers at the University of Washington tried an experiment: reconstruct cities from nothing but images from an Internet search. They succeeded at creating models of landmarks in Rome and Venice, and the entire Old City of Dubrovnik.

To do this, they used a cluster of machines working in parallel to match common data points in pictures taken by tourists matching a search. Their largest work, Dubrovnik, was completed in 17.5 hours.

This bears repetition: this was done with nothing but a search on user-submitted photos from Flickr and raw computing power. In other words, they distilled images taken by numerous, disconnected people into a single common conglomeration of what they all recorded, automatically determining what matched what in all the photos.

This is incredible research, and it’s an excellent microcosm of how the Internet’s data can be crystallized into something more than the sum of its parts.