Blaise Aguera y Arcas of Microsoft Live Labs has built a formidable reputation around himself after his now famous demonstration of PhotoSynth at TED conference in March 2007.
Fast forward three years and the software engineer has used the latest TED event to unveil some incredible integration of augmented reality into Bing Maps.
Alongside some upgraded functionality to the standard viewing system, Bing has added additional layers onto the system to show off some of the more pioneering work it carries out through Live Labs.
The augmented reality system works by combining static data from images sites such as Flickr with live video streaming recorded at the same location.
The streaming, of course, wouldn't need to be live - especially for travel DMOs using mapping with video to showcase activities or historic sites.
Glenn Gruber points to how the travel search model is being challenged by consumers deciding on where to go by what activities and things are available rather than the destination itself.
Advances in mapping technology and, as Andrew Nicholson of TravelTainment claimed last week during a Travel Technology Europe seminar, multimedia search (especially images) is the next battleground for travel search.