Microsoft Image Composite Editor (ICE) - easy panoramas from multiple images

Microsoft Image Composite Editor does a nice job of stitching together a panorama photograph from images taken from the same viewpoint. According to the Microsoft web site for ICE "Microsoft Image Composite Editor is an advanced panoramic image stitcher. Given a set of overlapping photographs of a scene shot from a single camera location, the application creates a high-resolution panorama that seamlessly combines the original images. The stitched panorama can be shared with friends and viewed in 3D by uploading it to the Photosynth web site."

Here is a series of images I took in the school drive through today, pieced together in ICE.

And here is the completed "stitched" panorama.

This free tool from Microsoft Labs is simple to use and provides users with a number of options (check out the "perspective" option) for manipulating images. Cool stuff!!

The interface is pretty simple

Now, I've tried the Publish to Photosynth option and get a message saying that Photosynth is not available, try again later. Photosyynth is available because I have been using it all morning for some other testing - so not sure if our firewall or filter is getting in the way here - will try from home tonight and check.



I did manage to get the panorama into Photosynth using the Photosynth application directly and adding 3 pictures (to "fool it"). The result is below. As you scroll in you note the awesome detail that remains no matter how far you scroll in. See if you can zoom into the blue sign in front of the old building (on the left side of the screen.).