With this new technology, digital photography has been taken to new heights. Microsoft has created a new way to present photographs weaving them together to create a 3-dimensional presentation (which they call a synth) of the area or the object that was photographed. And the beauty of it is that it is free!

Here's how it works. You surf over to the Microsoft Photosynth website and download a small free program. Then you take pictures of the room, object, or area that you want to create the synth for. You need to take many overlapping photos of the area. For example, if you want to create a synth of your living room, you would take pictures of each corner of the room and each wall. You would then stand in the middle of the room and rotate and move through the room to take overlapping pictures of every area of the room, Then you would take close ups of many of the objects in the room. You can take up to 300 photos. The more the better. When you are finished, you upload the photos to the Photosynth website, and Microsoft will stitch them together to create a 3-dimensional synch of the room. Microsoft has a video tutorial to help you.

The results are amazing, Even if you don't want to create a synth, you can view those created by others. Check out the Taj Mahal, the Sphinx by National Geographic, the Guitar Workshop, or one of many other interesting synths. Navigating the synths seems a bit unusual at first, but you will get used to it. For a little help, check out the Synth Blog that has some tips and keyboard shortcuts.

While Microsoft has created a great free tool, this is the first version, so there are some limitations.

• Photosynth can only run on PCs running Windows XP or Windows Vista.
• You need a broadband Internet connection to upload pictures. You need to sign up for a Windows Live ID, which is also free.
• Also, you should be aware that right now all synths are public so your pictures will be viewable by anyone on the Internet.
• You need a video card with at least 128 Mb of memory

It is easy to ascertain the restrictions of the first three points. However, not many of us know if our video card has the proper amount of memory or not. Most newer computers will have enough memory on the video card, but older computers may not. If you are running Vista, you probably have enough video memory for this program.
If you aren't sure about your video memory, you can simply download the program and if you don't have enough memory, the program will tell you that your computer does not meet the minimum requirements. Alternatively, I have included instructions below for checking the amount of video card memory for those of you who want to check your hardware before you install.

Checking Video Card Memory (Windows 95/98/Me/XP)

1. Close programs and all windows.
2. Click Start and click Run.
3. Type DXDIAG in the Run line and click OK. The DirectX Diagnostic Tool window will open.
4. Click the Display tab. On this tab you should see the amount of memory of your video card under "Approx Total Memory"