Growing the tech tree

Photosynth

What is it?
Photosynthbuilds a 3D model of a real place from hundreds of photographs, and skins that model with the photos themselves. It's Microsoft's human-friendly way of presenting hundreds of gigabytes of image data, with limitless zoom and no lag. Imagine walking through a detailed recreation of Times Square built from photographs taken by tourists and posted online. You can even zoom in on the fine detail on the buildings; close enough to pick out individual bricks.

Gaming potential
This would make a great crime-scene investigation game. It can't be done in existing FPS games because textures get blotchy as soon as you get close, but Photosynth's near infinite zoom could provide access to tiny clues, fingerprints, and blood splats. Alternatively, think of content generation: Photosynth could create a world online, perhaps an MMO, with much of its detail provided by player photographs. We, as contributors, could even insert our own clues and stories into the game, making a sort of communal Alternate Reality Game.