The images above and below and also the links below will take you to the photosynth of the Epicenter / Center Court Volleyball facility in Waukesha, WI (US).

The Epicenter was Kevin Quincey’s first project in building a large volleyball centre.  It featured 8 indoor courts (with sport court flooring), 9 outdoor sand courts,  a banquet hall seating more than 100 people, and two pubs.  It is the largest facility in the Midwest US, one of the largest in the country, and regional centre for all USA Volleyball tournaments and many other events.  Kevin was part of a 12 member entrepreneurial team that built it in 1993 and ran it for 8 years until a church bought it from them.  They continued the volleyball and all functions as an income stream.  The new (third) owner renamed it to “Center Court” and added basketball to the indoor activities.

Photosynth is a technology created by Microsoft research that creates 3-dimensional models from a collection of standard photographs.  It uses elements that it recognises in overlapping pictures to associate the pictures spacialy and determine from where each was taken. This allows you to interactively walk through the pictures, see where in a picture another photo might offer additional detail.  This creates a fun and interactive way to view the real world.  It’s a step beyond Google’s “street view” and as it’s applied to very large collections of photos, like “Flickr” or Microsoft Live images, it might offer some exciting new ways to view our world.  I hope you have as much fun flying through these as I had in taking them.

Note that the first time you use “PhotoSynth” you’ll be asked to install “Silverlight” and possibly a couple other supporting technologies that your computer needs.  Not to worry - this is expected and it should be a painless installation (but please do let me know if you get stuck).