The Widget Way to 3-D

Second Life and other virtual worlds have grabbed most of the attention when it comes to 3-D imagery online. But Web-building service Freewebs made a splash recently with a new widget - currently in beta - that turns digital photos into 3-D pictures. The technology, dubbed "Fotowoosh," lets users convert digital photos taken outdoors into 3-D models and publish them on their Web site or blog. Created by a Ph.D. candidate in robotics at Carnegie Mellon University, Fotowoosh identifies sections of an outdoor image as ground, vertical or sky to determine where to "cut" and "fold" it before creating a virtual pop-up. More ...