• by Mark Walsh , May 29, 2007

Second Life and other virtual worlds have grabbed most of the attention when it comes to 3-D imagery online. But Web-building service Freewebs made a splash recently with a new widget - currently in beta - that turns digital photos into 3-D pictures.

The technology, dubbed "Fotowoosh," lets users convert digital photos taken outdoors into 3-D models and publish them on their Web site or blog. Created by a Ph.D. candidate in robotics at Carnegie Mellon University, Fotowoosh identifies sections of an outdoor image as ground, vertical or sky to determine where to "cut" and "fold" it before creating a virtual pop-up.

So far, the process only works on about one in three photos - further development is aimed at improving the success rate. Even so, Freewebs president Shervin Pishevar already envisions advertising opportunities for the 3-D widgets. "We think real estate companies and FSBOs [for sale by owners] will love showing off their properties and rooms using [Fotowoosh] on their sites," he wrote recently online.

He also sees the technology possibly being combined with Google Maps or Yahoo Maps to allow users to view discrete locations in 3-D. Freewebs, which draws about 5.5 million monthly visitors, has been an early exponent of widget marketing, running sponsored widgets for marketers including Paramount Pictures, Reebok and Cingular.