an online application that stitches together digital photographs of an area and converts them into a three-dimensional map

Unfortunately it’s hard to do justice to it in words.  However, when this video was released a couple of years ago there was a lot of ooh-ing and aah-ing about it:

About this point you’re probably wondering what this has to do with Birmingham.  Well,

The Birmingham Post has teamed up with its creators Microsoft to produce Birmingham’s first ever online, 3D representations of Victoria Square and St Philip’s Cathedral

Which strikes me as jolly interesting.  Unfortunately I’m blogging this blind because, according to Microsoft’s special version of wisdom, Photosynth has been made Windows only and I’m labouring away on a Mac.  Gah!