PhotoSketch is a mind-blowing project from a group of computer science students in China, who have created software that will take your hand-drawn sketch, search the Web for corresponding images and then stitch them all together into a brand-new composite image.
A video demonstration from their paper shows the software in action:
Sketch2Photo: Internet Image Montage from Tao Chen on Vimeo.
While only tangentially related to real estate marketing (though imagine the fun in putting together a listing presentation), what I think this technology points to is a rise of alternate input methods that will push us beyond the keyboard.
The iPhone has already demonstrated the appeal of multi-touch, and I suspect we’ll be seeing even more creative uses of this kind of gesture-based interaction over the next few years.
Text-based search has been held back somewhat by a limited vocabulary and clumsy filters. So imagine searching for a home by simply drawing what you were looking for with a Surface-like tablet or a Perceptive Pixel-type wall and have the software return the most relevant results to you.
It won’t be for everyone — but for the more adventurous, the future of real estate search may just be about letting your fingers do the talking.
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Future of Real Estate Marketing is a part of Inman News.
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