Photosynth added to Virtual Earth

Microsoft has announced that it has integrated the Photosynth tool into its Virtual Earth platform.

Photosynth lets you turn a series of photographs of an object or place into a 3D model or environment.

Its addition to Virtual Earth, a satellite imaging and mapping application, means that you can now add navigable 3D environments for Virtual Earth users to explore.

The integration will benefit both businesses and home users - it costs nothing to upload up to 1GB worth of synths to Virtual Earth.



One new feature lets you limit access to your synth to certain people.

"We've introduced simple privacy controls so you can decide whether and how you want to share your synths with the world," said Microsoft's David Geyde.

More than 12 million photographs have been added to Photosynth since it was launched in August 2008.