Science Fiction meets Flickr on steroids

A few days ago I happened to read a sci-fi story about a researcher in the future who was researching an important historical figure that lived in our current time. Using known photographs of the historical person, the researcher created search queries using facial and body recognition software that searched all photographs online. Once the target was located, the researcher could fine tune the search and expand the search to people that the target was associated with in the photos that were found. The search could also be narrowed using metadata in the photos such as dates etc. This allowed the researcher to create a timeline of places and times that the target visited and who they associated with at those places all from the photographs (from professional to cell phone) taken by other people! This is an incredible tool and my smartest friends say that this will revolutionize the travel industry.

I write this to say that the future is here. Check out Photosynth from microsoft labs. The purpose of Photosyth is the create a 3D representation of a place by using all the photos taken at that place that are online.

While the purpose is not to find people, there are still people in the photos and the implication are clear. I'm not against all this, I just want to be clear that in the future our actions and movements will be searchable in ways we never dreamed would be possible and the future is now.

Update: Check out this video from TEDS on Photosynth