SPATIALLY REGISTERING USER PHOTOGRAPHS

Photographs of an object may be oriented with respect to both the geographic location and orientation of the object by registering a 3D model derived from a plurality of photographs of the objects with a 2D image of the object having a known location and orientation. For example, a 3D point cloud of an object created from photographs of the object using a Photosynth™ tool may be aligned with a satellite photograph of the object, where the satellite photograph has location and orientation information. A tool providing scaling and rotation of the 3D model with respect to the 2D image may be used or an automatic alignment may be performed using a function based on object edges filtered at particular angles. Once aligned, data may be recorded that registers camera locations for the plurality of photographs with geographic coordinates of the object, either absolute latitude/longitude or relative to the object.