Microsoft is ending Photosynth apps

Microsoft is discontinuing its Photosynth apps for Windows Phone and iOS. According to the electronics giant, current online solutions appear to work better. With Photosynth, a series of photos of an object or environment can be merged into a 3d model.

Due to the discontinuation, the Photosynth apps for Windows Phone and iOS are no longer available from Microsoft and Apple download stores. The technology giant reports that the apps can still be used, but that official support is ending. Users will now have to upload their photos directly to Photosynth.net, which will still remain active.

Microsoft says it will stop Photosynth because the experimental Preview technology appears to perform better. This online technology looks for fixed points in uploaded photos and then makes them into a whole. Then the program looks at, among other things, where the photos were taken, in order to generate 3D shapes.

Microsoft released the first Photosynth version in 2008. The program needed twenty to three hundred photos to generate a 3D model, after which synths were created that could be viewed from all angles. Photosynth came out of the stable of Microsoft Live Labs, which closed in 2010.