A group of researchers at UNC recently teamed with the Swiss university ETH-Zurich to devise a technique that automatically creates 3-D models of landmarks and geographical locations based on two-dimensional pictures on Internet photo sharing sites.

The method, developed by a team led by UNC professor Jan-Michael Frahm, uses millions of images that are processed on a single computer in less than one day.

Researchers demonstrated the technique by using 3 million images of Rome to reconstruct the city’s primary landmarks. A single PC processed the images in less than 24 hours. Landmarks in Berlin were reconstructed in the same manner.