Microsoft Malta recently announced the winners of its photosynth competition during the 'Embed' exhibition, organised by the e-Learning Centre within the Ministry for Education, at the Grand Hotel Excelsior, Floriana.

The competition rewarded those who came up with the most creative and innovative projects using Photosynth, a free Microsoft application, to capture some of Malta's heritage sites.

The winners of the first prize were the classes taught by Marcelle Degiorgio at Siġġiewi Primary and Brian Bajada from St Julian's Primary; the second prize-winners were the classes taught by Silvana Farrugia at Qormi San Ġorġ Primary and Maria Borg Vella at Rabat Primary C St Nicholas College; and the third prize-winners were the students taught by Sharon Micallef at Paola Primary B and Joseph Sam Cutajar at Qala Primary.

During the presentation of prizes to winners, Fabianne Ruggier from Microsoft Malta thanked all the participating students who, together, submitted a total of 160 entry projects, which saw them uploading 17,000 photos as part of their projects.

"The response from students and the teachers assisting them was overwhelming and very interesting. The level achieved in many of the submitted projects proved the capabilities of students to grasp the application immediately and invest effort in presenting their projects," said Ms Ruggier.

Speaking about the competition, Microsoft Malta Developer Platform Evangelist Karl Davies Barrett said: "Some of the criteria considered in judging the submissions included the involvement of the students in the project, how interesting the subject was, the number of photos taken, the experience offered by the project, the quality of the photos and other details such as the use of geo-tags and highlights."

Described as the 'best addition to photography since the digital camera', Photosynth takes photos, meshes them together and recreates a 3D scene that anyone can view and move around in.

The Photosynth application can be downloaded free from www.photosynth.net.