A group of students from Carnegie Mellon University and the University of California, Berkeley developed a free software which uses regular 2D images and combines them with free 3D models of objects to create unbelievable results.
We had to watch this video twice to really believe it – a group of 4 students created a free downloadable software (currently it seems for mac OS-X only) that allows users to perform 3D manipulations, such as rotations, translations, scaling, deformation, and 3D copy-paste, to objects in photographs.
Amazing 2D to 3D image manipulation using the software and a 3D model of a taxi
However unlike many 3D object manipulation software (which also exists in Photoshop for example), the team’s approach seamlessly reveals hidden parts of objects in photographs, and produces plausible shadows and shading. This is done by using 3D models (which can be obtained freely online from many repositories).
The result as you can see looks amazing, and although it might be possible to do this and much more using 3D and animation software – the process here seems to be much simpler and more intuitive.
You can find more info on the group’s page.
More photography related technology videos can be found on our photo-tech section here on LensVid.
Iddo Genuth 
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Splendid! I regret to be pedantic, but check your title: “software” is a mass noun, like “hardware”, “information”, and “clothing”. You do not have “one hardware” or “one clothing” − you have one piece of hardware, one piece of information, one piece of clothing, and one piece of software. There is no such thing as “a software”.
Free as in beer, not freedom.. 🙁
Theres something fish going on here.