After watching the Ted Talk on Photosynth it is now clear for me that we can recreate any 3D object given various 2D images of it. I also highlighted the idea of collective memory, combining all of the digital knowledge to create unified models of physical places and objects. This digitalization/virtualization of our physical world might be exactly something where the trends are going as humanity’s interests tend to shift from experiencing physical reality to virtual experiences.
I further did a quick research on the authors of Photosynth, and went through some other articles by them. They were all published around 2010, which surprised me much, as this knowledge and its applications exist for 10 years already. It leaves me highly interested in the further applications of Photosynth and its type of technologies in the fields of VR/AR.