Photosynth: Collaborative albums on steroids

Could Microsoft actually come out with something more ground-breaking than, ehh, the animated paperclip?

Here's Photosynth, a Live Labs' idea that take the photosharing service Flickr into 3D format.

It answers the question: What is the use of all those digital photos on the net?

Apparently, with Photosynth you can re-construct a "scene", then walk or fly through it to see photos from any angle, zooming in and out at will.

From a newsman's viewpoint this would be intriguing. A 9/11-sized catastrophe constructed in near real-time from uploaded, crowd-sourced cameraphone photos would have some intriguing angles.

But what if we could take it to the next level in video format?

See video demos at LiveLabs site and TED, then try it.